Financial firms move more employees off Wall Street

As new types of businesses increasingly descend upon Wall Street, the old guard is beginning to depart. According to the New York Times, many financial institutions are moving middle-tier workers out of the Financial District to cheaper office space around the country.

With taxes, labor costs and real estate expenses so high in New York, more companies have begun “near-shoring” workers, or moving them outside of financial centers but keeping them in the U.S. While low-level jobs have already moved off-shore and top-tier traders and bankers will be in the city for the foreseeable future, accountants, human resource employees and legal support, to name a few, are being moved to places like North Carolina and Jacksonville, Fla.

For example, Deutsche Bank has cut 500 from its New York-area workforce while adding 400 jobs in Jacksonville. Credit Suisse has dropped 500 employees in the New York-area while increasing staff in North Carolina by 450. Goldman Sachs’ New York-area workforce, which has transformed Battery Park City, has held flat since the end of 2009, but its Salt Lake City employee count has doubled to 1,400. All the firms cited cost savings as reasons for the move.

With so many middle-tier Positions On Wall Street many analysts expect this trend to continue, and that could weaken the demand for Financial District office space as firms’ leases come up for renewal. [NYT]