Wall Street hiring helps lift finance jobs in October

Hiring across the financial sector showed signs of life in October, with Wall Street-related firms adding workers, while commercial lending and insurers continued to shed jobs.

Firms in financial activities-related businesses added 7,000 jobs last month, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday. The additions mark the first net hiring gain in that corner of the labor market since June, leaving the financial services sector with about 99,000 fewer jobs than it had a year ago.

Along with real estate roles, Wall Street-related positions helped lift October hiring by 2,900 jobs.

Employment in securities, commodity contracts, funds, trusts, investments, and related activities — a broad category encompassing much of Wall Street and the asset management industry — rose by 2,900 in October and is up roughly 29,000 from a year ago.

"Across the board, things are really active," Brianne Sterling, who leads investment banking recruiting in New York for Selby Jennings, said in a Thursday interview.

Sterling told Yahoo Finance the firm has seen strong hiring across financial services, especially in investment banking.

"This has been, I think, one of our best years ever" for recruiting, Sterling added, likening 2026 to the post-COVID hiring boom of 2022.

Senior investment bankers are switching jobs at an unusually active pace. Sterling said Selby Jennings typically tracks roughly 20 to 30 managing director-level investment banking moves per month, but counted nearly 50 in September.

Not every business within the financial services sector rose last month. Commercial banking shed another 1,200 jobs in October and now employs about 26,000 fewer people than a year ago, while insurance employment fell by 5,500 last month and is down nearly 90,000 from October 2025.

Collectively, the six largest US banks reported a year-over-year decline in headcount in the third quarter, with those figures also suggesting selective hiring as opposed to a broad effort to shrink labor forces.

JPMorgan Chase ( JPM ), Goldman Sachs ( GS ), and Morgan Stanley ( MS ) each increased headcount during the third quarter, while Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup ( C ), and Wells Fargo ( WFC ) reduced some positions.

The uneven hiring wave comes as banks are still aggressively looking to automate tasks or rely on fewer workers with newer artificial intelligence tools at their disposal, Sterling added.

The industry is also navigating a tricky environment amid rising borrowing costs. Higher Treasury yields have increased unrealized losses on their bond portfolios and raised concerns about borrowing activity. The KBW Nasdaq Bank Index ( ^BKX ) was about 12% below its August high as of Friday afternoon, though it remains up more than 4% year to date.