A report released this week showed that the personal incomes of New York State residents were down 3.1 percent, the first full-year decline in more than 70 down years. Paychecks or net earnings dropped 5.4 percent, while dividends, interest, and rent fell 8.4 percent. Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said New Yorkers’ personal income fell “almost twice” as much as they did in the country as a whole and that the numbers here have yet to recover to pre-recession levels. But unless you work on Wall Street (or upstate, which hasn’t experienced anywhere near the job growth in New York City and its suburbs), there’s not as much cause for alarm. With first-quarter earnings on track to hit $10.1 billion in profits, Wall Street went on a hiring spree in early 2010. Once second-quarter earnings dropped to $3.9 billion, the industry started handing out pink slips. By August, the sector sliced 4,200 positions, although data for Wall Street is hard to track since “generous severance checks” mean workers don’t collect unemployment for many months.
