Friday was a dark day for the U.S. jobs picture, but the finance industry stayed relatively bright.
The sector added 3,000 positions, but the unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 6.8% in May from 6.7% in April. That's because about 12,000 new people joined the finance labor market.
Those who have jobs are fairly confident. A measure of job security among finance and insurance workers is near a record high, at least since Scorelogix, a Delaware-based research firm, started compiling the fear index in 2008. All U.S. workers are feeling more secure in recent months, but the security index scores for workers at banks, brokerages and insurance employees remain about 53% higher than those for the economy overall.
As a Cajun friend of mine often says: worry is a useless emotion anyway.
Citi Spree Continues (FINS)
The big bank has lured Andrew Baum, a leading healthcare/pharmaceuticals analyst from Morgan Stanley. A physician by training, Baum has more industry cred than most.
The Play's the Thing (WSJ)
Columbia Business School's Executive Education program is building a leadership course based on Shakespeare's plays. Here's the short version: read Henry V, not Henry VI or King Lear.
From Russia (WSJ)
VTB Capital, a sovereign Russian bank, is planning to get one-third of its investment banking revenue from outside the motherland. It hired a former Goldman Sachs partner to fuel that effort.
Austerity Measures (Bloomberg)
Nomura cut pay for its top executives by 38% last year, as the firm struggled. The top 10 bosses collected the equivalent of $11 million in total.
Priming the Pump (WSJ)
To lower unemployment, import the best and the brightest, at least that's the argument of the WSJ Outlook section. Specifically, it suggests handing out more H-1B visas.
Best Indie Brokerages (Registered Rep)
The tide of financial advisors from wirehouses to independent platforms has slowed to a trickle. So what's the best indie shop? Commonwealth Financial Network, according to a new survey.
Buzz Around the Office
Sarah Palin, Historian (YouTube)
If you know anything at all about Paul Revere, you're way ahead of Sarah Palin.
List of the day: Top Job Markets
These places have more online job postings per worker than all other U.S. cities.
1. Washington
2. San Francisco
3. Baltimore
(Source: MarketWatch)
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