MetroMonitor: Tracking Economic Recession and Recovery in America's 100 Largest Metropolitan Areas (3rd Quarter 2011)

Recent comments by presidential candidates, news reports about Federal Reserve assistance to banks during the financial crisis, and protests by Occupy Wall Street and its allies have focused attention on the financial industries.  This month's MetroMonitor examines recent job and wage growth in three major financial industry groups:

• Credit intermediation (a category that consists mainly of banks but also includes credit card issuers, mortgage brokers, and other kinds of lenders),
• Securities and commodities (including investment banks, securities and commodities brokers, and investment advisors, among others), and
• Funds and trusts (including investment funds, pension funds, and trusts and estates, among others).

Across the 100 largest metros, the average change in wages in 2 of the 3 major financial industry groups exceeded the average change in wages overall since the start of the recovery in the second quarter of 2009. Moreover, more than half of the top 100 metros saw the industry average wage grow more rapidly than the overall average wage for each of these key industries. Fifty-two metros experienced this imbalance with the credit intermediation industry, 56 with funds and trusts, and 84 with securities and commodities. For more, see the Brookings Institution MetroMonitor.

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Howard Wial, Fellow
Siddharth Kulkarni, Research Assistant
Richard Shearer, Senior Research Assistant

Metropolitan Policy Program
Brookings Institution