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THE ECONOMIC FALLOUT
jobs. After growing steadily for years, employment in the financial sector fell by
, in , , in , and another , in . Areas dependent on
the financial industry, such as Charlotte, North Carolina, have been hit hard. The un-
employment rate in the Charlotte area rose from . in to a recent peak of
. in February .
Between January and December , banks have failed; most were
small and medium-size banks. The number of small banks on the FDIC’s list of
troubled institutions rose from in the second quarter of to in the third
quarter, the largest number since March . Though a number of large financial
institutions failed or nearly failed during the crisis, on the whole they have done bet-
ter since the fall of . Total financial sector profits peaked at billion in
and then fell to billion in , the lowest level since the early s. They have
since rebounded in and , boosted by low interest rates and access to low-
cost government borrowing. Financial sector profits were billion in and
reached an annual rate of billion in the fall of .
Within the financial sector, commercial bank profits rose from . billion in the
first quarter of to . billion in the first quarter of . The gains were con-
centrated among the larger banks. For banks with assets greater than billion,
profits more than doubled, from . billion to . billion, from the first quarter of
to the first quarter of . For commercial banks with less than billion in
assets, profits rose only , from less than billion to . billion.
The securities industry has reported record profits and is once again distributing
large bonuses. Just for those who work in New York City, bonuses at Wall Street secu-
rities firms in were . billion, up from the year before, with “average
compensation [rising] by percent to more than ,.” After reporting
billion of losses during and , the New York State Comptroller reported that
in , “industry profits reached a record . billion—almost triple the level of
three years earlier.” 
