TEXT OF STORY

Steve Chiotakis: Since the banking crisis, many financial companies have really cut their payrolls. And many of those former employees are still hurting and can’t find work. Now, as Marketplace’s Mitchell Hartman reports, some are prepared to take whatever they can get.

Mitchell Hartman: Nearly 90,000 people have lost jobs in banking and finance since 2008, 10 percent of the total workforce. Many of them expected to be working again by now, at comparable salaries. But reality has sunk in.

Skiddy Von Stade: Listen, a lot of these people have been on the sidelines for quite some time, and they realize they can’t be too picky about compensation.

Skiddy von Stade runs the online employment service OneWire. In a recent survey, the firm found that 80 percent of laid-off financial workers have been unemployed longer than they expected. Nearly 60 percent would now consider a lower-paying position.

But they may even not have to, Von Stade says:

Von Stade: It’s getting to the point now where companies are beginning to compete again for talent.

This is especially true for new MBAs, who’ve been in school during the worst of the crisis. Von Stade says the top financial firms are offering $100,000 in base pay, plus a $40,000 signing bonus. He says that’s back to pre-recession levels.

I’m Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace.