Profits on Wall Street rose last year for the first time since 2012, and financial firms cut larger bonus checks on average, according to a new report from the New York State Comptroller's Office.
The rebound is good news for New York City, where the financial industry accounts for one-fifth of private sector wages and supports nearly 1 in 10 jobs directly or indirectly, according to the comptroller's estimate.
The broker-dealer operations at New York Stock Exchange member firms booked $17.3 billion in profits in 2016, the comptroller reported, using a standard measure of industry profitability. That marked a 21 percent jump from 2015 profits and the first increase in four years.