特朗普无心插柳：华尔街就业规模破历史纪录

今年三月份的全美就业报告应该不会让特朗普感到开心，然而至少有一个行业在他至今短短几个月的任期内蓬勃复兴了起来。只不过当特朗普信誓旦旦地承诺增加就业机会时，他脑子里想的肯定不包括这个行业。

以华尔街为大本营的美国金融业如今已经发展到历史上的最大规模，甚至超过了金融危机爆发前的水平。美国劳工统计局上周五发布的数据显示，华尔街及全美金融行业的从业人数在今年三月首次超过了840万人。

另一迹象也表明，自从2008年的金融危机导致美国各大银行遭受重挫以来，华尔街虽然迄今仍未完全恢复元气，但其体量已经超过了历史任何时期。直到去年底，美国金融行业的规模仍然稍逊于2007年的鼎盛时期，那时美国共有839万名金融从业者，而各大银行的借贷泡沫也与其股票市值及资产一样，上升到了十分危险的水平。

在金融危机爆发后，由于各种法规致使成本增加，加之利润减少，华尔街各大行纷纷操刀裁员。直到最近，美国金融业才重新再次招募人手，这在一定程度上也是利率的上涨拉高了行业利润的缘故。

自从去年11月特朗普当选以来，金融行业已经新增了67,000个工作岗位，这是1998年以来美国金融业招聘力度最大的五个月。

银行业的复苏更像是特朗普无心插柳的结果。因为特朗普在大选期间一直鼓吹要为美国带回更多的蓝领职位，而不是华尔街的白领岗位。特朗普在选举期间经常指责华尔街与民主党候选人希拉里过从甚密。当时特朗普有一句颇受欢迎的选举口号——“把沼泽抽干”，影射了华尔街与华盛顿之间千丝万缕的联系。

然而自从特朗普胜选以来，他把好几位曾在高盛工作的人士拉进了自己的顾问圈子。这种前后矛盾的做法令不少特朗普的支持者对其由爱转恨。有人表示特朗普不仅没有“抽干沼泽”，反而和华尔街的联系更紧密了。而特朗普对这种指责则基本上缄口不答。

美国金融界就业数字的跃升之所以值得关注，不仅仅是由于华尔街的规模创下了历史纪录，还因为它贡献了上个月就业新增总数的9%。今年3月，金融业新增加了9,000个左右的工作岗位，相比之下，零售业却裁员29,000人之多。最终，今年3月的新增就业岗位总数为98,000个。

然而金融业就业数据的增长对于美国经济来说未必是件好事，因为这有可能进一步拉大贫富差距。根据美国劳工统计局的数据，2016年，美国零售业工人的平均时薪只有10.07到12.99美元，而金融和保险业从业者的时薪至少比他们高出30%以上，平均在13.09到35.07美元之间。（财富中文网）

译者：朴成奎

Donald Trump may not be celebrating March's disappointing jobs report. But at least one U.S. industry is thriving under his presidency—and it's one Trump most certainly did not have in mind when he promised to create more jobs.

The American finance industry that calls Wall Street home is now larger than ever before, even surpassing its highs before the financial crisis, according to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The number of people working on Wall Street and in financial jobs across the country exceeded 8.4 million for the first time in March, the BLS reported Friday.

It's another sign that more than six years after the 2008 market crash that sent American banks into a tailspin, Wall Street has not only fully recovered, but it is stronger than ever. Until this year, the U.S. financial industry remained smaller than at its peak in 2007, when it had 8.39 million employees, as a risky lending boom and rising stock market expanded the ranks of banks along with their bottom lines.

But while banks had shrunk their head counts in the wake of the Great Recession, with costly regulations and slimmer profits leading to layoffs, the financial industry has been bulking up again lately, propelled in part by rising interest rates that have lifted earnings.

In fact, since November when President Trump's election, the financial sector has added some 67,000 jobs—the most jobs the industry has added during the same five-month period since 1998.

Yet boosting the banking industry has likely been an unintended consequence for President Trump, whose campaign pledges to put Americans back to work focused on creating blue-collar manufacturing jobs, not white-collar Wall Street ones. The commander-in-chief often criticized Wall Street for its ties to then-Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, while on the campaign trail. One of Trump's favorite slogans at the time was "Drain the Swamp"—a kind of catch-all phrase that also encompassed Washington's ties to Wall Street.

Since Trump was elected President, however, he has added multiple Goldman Sachs (gs, -0.33%) alumni to his circle of advisors. The seeming contradiction has led some of his former supporters to turn against him, saying Trump has instead deepened his ties to Wall Street, an accusation the President has largely shrugged off.

But the jump in the finance sector's employment figures is worth noting not only because the Wall Street's size is at an all-time high, but also because it contributed 9% of last month's total job gains. The finance industry grew by some 9,000 jobs in March while retailers shed 29,000, resulting in a total of 98,000 jobs added in the month.

Still, the growth in financial jobs is not necessarily good news for the American economy, as it is likely to exacerbate the wealth gap, a problem also known as income inequality. While workers in the retail industry earned between $10.07 to $12.99, on average, in 2016, those in the finance and insurance industry earned at least 30% more, with average wages between $13.09 to $35.07, according to BLS data.