A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly before the end of the day's trading. (Photo : Reuters)
In the eyes of Goldman Sach's 34,900, the mega bank is an A-1 employer because despite a 53 percent dip in profit in the last three months to June, all workers would divide $8.3 billion in pay and bonuses. That translates into a whopping $235,000 per head, although some officials would get a bigger amount.
While the bank's staff may be the envy of many workers who live paycheck-to-paycheck, a think tank described Goldman's practice as an example of the "greedy, obnoxious way the economy works." Luke Hildyard from High Pay Centre, explains, "In the ordinary world, if profits fall, workers are lucky to stay in their jobs. But in the golden sectors, like finance, it doesn't matter," quotes Mirror.
The 53 percent decline in profit was because of a $3.4 billion hit from legal costs related to mortgage practices prior to the global financial crisis of 2008. Otherwise, Goldman's profit actually jumped to an eight-year high of $4.85 billion.
For number-crunchers who also want to enjoy the benefits of high pay that comes from being employed by Goldman Sachs, the good news is that the bank is hiring in Utah and Bangalore, reports Quartz. Besides going against the trend in the banking industry where the job ax is falling, Goldman's employee base grew 10 percent over the past 24 months.
The growth mainly came from its offices in India's technology hub, Bangalore, and Salt Lake City, said Goldman Chief Financial Officer Harvey Schwartz during the bank's second-quarter earnings call. He said the additional hires were in areas related to compliance and growth in its wealth-management and asset-management businesses.
Besides the two locations, 19 percent of Goldman's headcount are in cities where the bank is building operational excellence outside its traditional hubs in New York, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong. These are in Dallas and Singapore, plus the two cities earlier mentioned.
