N.Y. comptroller projects higher Wall Street profits in 2016

ALBANY, N.Y. >> Wall Street is on track to post higher profits this year and end three straight years of declines, according to a report issued Friday by New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

New York City’s securities industry earned pretax profits of $9.3 billion in the first half of 2016.

The industry saw $11.3 billion in profits in the first half of 2015, but experienced an unusual fourthquarter loss, ending the year with $14.3 billion in profits overall.

DiNapoli says there’s no reason to expect a similar loss in this year’s fourth quarter, and he predicts Wall Street will end the year with its first year-overyear increase since 2012.

“Barring a major setback the industry is on pace for higher profits,” he said. “We don’t see anything on the horizon to suggest we’ll have a negative fourth quarter as we did last year.”

The average securities industry salary, including bonuses, was $388,000, down from last year, when the average salary was $404,800.

“It was still far higher than any other major industry in the city,” DiNapoli, a Democrat, said of the average salary. The average salary across the private sector in New York City is $74,100.

The report also found that Wall Street is moving uptown. While half of all securities jobs were located in Lower Manhattan in 2000, two-thirds are now in Midtown and 19 percent are located in the area around Wall Street.

Securities jobs make up less than 5 percent of private-sector jobs in the city, yet they generate 21 percent of private-sector wages. The industry generated 18.5 percent of state tax collections in the last fiscal year, and directly or indirectly supported 1 in 10 jobs in the city.