From Riches to Rags

The Wall Street Journal has begun exposing how the New York financial sector is in such dire straits right now that some former stock gurus have gone to the lowly life of working for a living. For instance, take Carlos Araya. He used to be the Wall Street executive you would see ordering expensive dinners at the Palm Restaurant in midtown Manhattan. Now, he serves there. As Wall Street began to hurt, he lost his job as a crude oil trader on the New York Mercantile Exchange in 2007. After horrible luck at finding a new job in the investment industry, he applied in August 2008 to be a host at the Palm to make end’s meet. He is making just over 10 percent of his original salary.

Some former investment brokers, used to performing high end jobs that they are well trained for and earning salaries some people would kill for, are forced to accept low-wage work because they just cannot convert their experience and training into a job like the one they lost. Now, Mr. Araya is heading toward bankruptcy and is confident that he will never return to the investment business.

Unfortunately, there are thousands of stories like this one. Almost 25,000 jobs have been lost in the financial sector in New York alone since August 2007. Before 2012, that number is supposed to hike up to 56,800. This figure began building in 2007 during the financial hiccup that was a predecessor to our current recession, in which Araya lost his job.

John Carbonaro lost his job with Bank of America as a floor clerk in January 2009, and despite his experience and allure, currently takes care of the domestic duties in the family. Joe Morrone, a former Prudential trading clerk, has been unemployed for two years and struggles to support his daughters and grandson. He has worked in a deli, as a doorman, and a bouncer. He used to own three automobiles for just his own use. Now he shares one family vehicle they struggle to pay for.

Araya sometimes sees former colleagues from Wall Street in the Palm during his shifts. Some are pleasant meetings, offering encouragement. Other meetings are not so pleasant. “The way they look at you, you know they’re thinking negatively,” he says. Others come in asking if they can get a job there too. With 25,000 laid off, it’s certain many of them want a job there.

Araya’s daughter asked him if they could afford their house or if they would have to relocate. He told her he was not sure. She asked him if he knew how much money the family needed. “The way she looked at me,” Araya says, “I could tell she was counting the money in her piggy bank.” The emotionally excruciating exchange with his daughter caused him to run into the bathroom and cry. “At the end of the week, I get my paycheck and I think, ‘I used to make this much in a day,’” he adds.

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