Recent activity on Wall Street has many states evaluating their financial industry to see how badly they will be effected. The rippling effect of Lehman Brothers filling bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch being purchased by Bank of America will cause layoffs elsewhere than New York, but Boston jobs in finance aren’t expected to see the worst of it.

Boston is not as involved in trading as areas such as New York City. Instead Boston’s financial industry is more focuses on asset management, mutual funds, private equity and the like.

“Fortunately for us, Boston is not known primarily as the banking or investment side of Wall Street,” Samuel L. Hayes, a finance professor at Harvard Business School told the Boston Globe. “It’s strong on the money-management side, which is a more stable business.”

Rising interest rates will make it hard for many individuals and corporations to borrow money. In turn this will decrease the amount of work for many organizations, which will likely cause many employers in the industry to have to do away with some positions.

Another problem is that many investors are now worried about the current state of economy. This may make many individuals less likely to put the amount of money they usually would into mutual funds and other investment opportunities. Due to the recent issues, there is a high likelihood that people will chose to place their money in low risk savings accounts and C.D.s with guaranteed interest rates.

At this time, the full effect the struggling finance industry will have on Boston jobs is unknown. Until there are hard facts about the number of individuals who will lose their jobs on Wall Street and how many co-dependent occupations will be effected, it is hard to guess how many local employers will feel the need to decrease their staff numbers.

Labels: Boston Jobs