According to an estimate from New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, bonuses for Wall Street executives jumped 9% to a record USD 49.2 billion in 2025. The average bonus climbed 6% to USD 246,900 as dealmakers, traders and wealth managers were buoyed by tailwinds like strong trading, underwriting and management fees, even as geopolitical uncertainty and global tariffs roiled markets. The securities industry’s profits, on the other hand, surged more than 30% to USD 65.1 billion.
“Wall Street saw strong performance for much of last year, despite all of the ongoing domestic and international upheavals. When Wall Street does well, it’s good for our state and city budgets, which are reliant on the industry’s significant tax contributions,” Tom DiNapoli said in a media note.
Wall Street, which accounts for more than 19% of New York state’s tax collection, is seeing slower job growth, with preliminary data indicating a small decrease in the number of employees in 2025 to 198,200 from a 30-year high of 201,500 in 2024. As per the comptroller data, headcount data is likely to be revised higher for 2025 to reflect modest growth.
“The average annual salary in New York’s securities industry rose 7.3% to USD 505,677 in 2024, including bonuses, the second-highest on record and nearly five times the average salary in the rest of the city’s private sector, representing around 42% of total wages, taken all the industries together,” Tom DiNapoli noted.
However, the overall picture is not rosy, as New York City’s share of national securities jobs slipped to 17.9%, down from roughly a third of the national total in 1990, while rivals like Dallas and Miami are aggressively building out their financial sectors.
“The worry now is whether 2026 can come close to matching it. New York’s budget plans may already be too rosy: the governor’s proposed budget assumed finance-sector bonuses would rise 25.9% in the current fiscal year, while the city projected a 15.1% jump in securities bonuses. Based on Tom DiNapoli’s estimate, both targets look out of reach,” observed Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune’s business editor.
“President Trump’s escalating tariff agenda has rattled equity markets in early 2026, and Wall Street’s hiring momentum has stalled. With one in 13 New York City jobs tied directly or indirectly to the securities industry, the stakes for getting the next chapter right extend far beyond the trading floor,” he concluded.