Financial Sector Continues a Rebound

The booming stock market isn’t just evident from brokerage statements and 401(k) updates.

In Friday’s jobs report, the financial sector itself was a big winner, adding 15,000 jobs, including an additional 6,000 in the securities industry. Over the last year, the sector has added 120,000 positions.

The news comes one day after both the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index and the Dow Jones industrials set new records.

So far in 2013, overall employment in the financial sector has risen by just under 1 percent, close to the rate for the overall economy. But the financial sector remains about 6 percent smaller than it was at its peak in late 2006, while total employment is down by less than 1 percent over the same period, according to the Labor Department’s survey of employers.

Still, the trend over the last year signals a major turnaround for the financial sector, which was hard hit in the wake of the financial crisis. Total employment in financial activities stands at 7.9 million, although that is still well below the precrisis peak of 8.4 million reached in late 2006.

In the subcategory for securities, commodity contracts and investments â€" the closest thing to a Wall Street-type breakout â€" job growth has also been strong. This sector now employs 835,000 people, well above the low of 799,000 in 2010.

That’s a tiny number of positions in terms of the nation’s jobs picture, but it has an outsize influence in New York and the surrounding areas. And although Wall Street may be among the least-loved sectors in the American economy, it also underscores how banks and other financial institutions have managed to stage a healthier recovery than other industries.

The manufacturing sector, for example, has actually shed jobs over the last six months, and with just under 12 million workers, employs two million fewer workers than before the recession.