Hiring picking up a bit on Wall Street

TEXT OF INTERVIEW

Steve Chiotakis: The job market on Wall Street may be starting to recover. There’s word today that Morgan Stanley plans to hire as many as 400 traders and sales people. Marketplace’s New York bureau chief Amy Scott joins us live to talk about it. Good morning Amy.

Amy Scott: Good morning Steve.

Chiotakis: So why the new jobs?

Scott: Well it seems that Morgan Stanley is playing catch-up a bit. While some of its rivals have been reporting big profits, Morgan Stanley lost more than a billion dollars last quarter. Analysts say the bank got a bit too cautious after the financial crisis last fall, so now they’re reportedly adding staff to try to improve their profits.

Chiotakis: Are other firms, Amy, picking up the pace as well?

Scott: Well there have been some reports that hiring is starting to pick up. Not just at the boutique investment banks that have been snapping up a lot of the talent, but at the big banks as well. If you look at employment sites like WallStreetJobs.com, you’ll see names like Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan Chase offering positions.

I met with a Wall Street recruiter this week who said he’s starting to get more calls from employers. You know banks cut thousands of jobs in the past few years, so with the stock market rallying and a lot of money to be made underwriting bond deals and the like. They need to replenish that staff. But people in the industry say it will be a long time before we get to anything like the employment levels before the crisis.

Chiotakis: All right. Marketplace’s Amy Scott joining us live from our bureau in New York. Amy thanks.

Scott: Thank you.