Bankers are generating more revenue for their companies than ever. With the help of a steady stream of technological innovations—from online banking to artificial intelligence—the per capita contribution of bank workers has grown $98,000 since 2009. Put another way, financial firms would require 400,000 additional bankers to generate today’s levels of revenue had productivity remained unchanged from 15 years ago.
While all of this has boosted the banks’ bottom lines, the news is less rosy for those who work in the banking industry. Even as the number of working Americans has increased 7.8%, the number of jobs in banking has stayed roughly constant at 1.37 million—meaning there’s 5.4% fewer banking jobs per American worker than there was 15 years ago.
