NEW YORK — It’s nice work — if you can get it.
Wall Street has cut thousands of jobs over the past year or so. On Tuesday, JPMorgan Chase, one of the country’s biggest banks, announced that it was eliminating 4,000 jobs through layoffs and attrition, adding its name to a string of large banks that continue to cut jobs to reduce expenses.
The good news? For the employees who remain, pay is up, according to a report released Tuesday by the New York State comptroller.
This may seem surprising given the outcry over high compensation during the financial crisis. In recent years, however, faced with greater regulation, a slow economic recovery and the loss of once big moneymaking businesses like selling products tied to mortgages, the banks have tried instead to cut people rather than pay, which they argue is needed in order to retain talent that might otherwise leave for better-paying jobs at hedge funds or elsewhere.
The average cash bonus for people employed in New York City in the financial industry rose by roughly 9 percent, to $121,900, in 2012, and cash bonuses in total are forecast to increase by roughly 8 percent to $20 billion this year, said Thomas DiNapoli, the comptroller.