Stock Market Rise Boots Wall Street Salaries - Financial Professionals See Large Chuck of Income as Options, Warrents

New Jersey’s financial services sector lost 7,900 jobs between December 2008 and October 2009, or nearly 17 percent of the 47,300 jobs the private sector shed in those months, according to the state’s Department of Labor. But not all these workers may have done badly, relative to their counterparts in other industries.

Most financial services professionals get a big chunk of their compensation as stock, including options and warrants. Many should have benefited handsomely from the stock market in the past year, according to Paul Dorf, managing director of Compensation Resources Inc., a consulting services firm in Upper Saddle River.

“A lot of people in Wall Street live and work in New Jersey; they were paid in stock and given stock options at a very low price,” Dorf said. “The stock market has improved dramatically.” The Dow Jones index soared from levels around 6,500 in March to nearly 10,300 by Nov. 27 — a rise of nearly 60 percent in eight months.

But the cuts are unkind when displaced financial services professionals attempt to find new jobs, according to Frankie Francese, managing partner at the accounting firm Fortis Consulting Group, in Tinton Falls.

“This is the first time I have seen people at all levels willing to take less money to work,” Francese said of his 14 years as a recruiter of finance and accounting talent. “Their number-one goal is to be able to be gainfully employed.”

Compensation is no longer the top priority; benefits and the stability of the organization are more important for job seekers, Francese said.

In earlier years, fresh graduates from New Jersey’s top schools could land jobs within the state with compensation packages starting at $50,000 or $60,000 a year, going up to $60,000 or more for Manhattan jobs, Francese said.

Finance and accounting professionals have always enjoyed a “strong job market and very strong salaries,” but that has changed dramatically, Francese said. “People making $200,000 a year are now willing to work for $125,000,” he said. “Being able to have a bonus isn’t critical.”

Accounting jobs also have become scarce, he said, owing to closures and consolidations of big financial-sector employers like Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, as well as mergers among pharmaceutical titans like Pfizer, Wyeth, Merck and Schering-Plough.

“Those sectors that employ a great number of accountants now need only two-thirds of them,” Francese said. “It’s also a domino effect: if people keep moving, there is always a job open.”

C-level executives in finance and accounting functions have taken deep cuts in their compensation packages, but salaries have stayed flat for employees further down the ladder, Francese said; many junior to middle-management employees in these roles look at their base salary as the major component in volatile times. “The promise of a bonus doesn’t carry weight,” he said.