The largest stock brokerages in Orange County hired more than 100 people in the past 12 months amid a Wall Street surge and an aggressive move into the market by banks.
The 20 largest brokerages here now employ 2,255 people, a 5% rise from a year ago, according to this week’s Business Journal list. Nearly all of the hiring was for support staff, as the number of brokers rose just 1% to 1,432 people.
A year ago on our list, the largest brokerages here saw a 1% drop to 2,182 workers and a 1% decline to 1,394 brokers.
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This year also saw a subtle shift at the top of the list.
The local offices of Merrill Lynch & Co. regained sole possession of the No. 1 spot for the first time since 2003. But it wasn’t Merrill Lynch’s doing,it was flat at 316 workers, including 212 brokers.
That’s changing, according to Jodi Rolland, regional managing director for Merrill Lynch’s Southern California region in Newport Beach.
“We are hiring,” she said.
Last year, Merrill Lynch shared the No. 1 spot with Smith Barney Inc., a unit of Citigroup Inc.
This year No. 2 Smith Barney broke the tie with a 3% decline to 307 local workers, including 185 brokers, down 1%.
Big Wall Street names dominate the list, with Morgan Stanley at No. 3. Morgan Stanley’s OC employment was flat at 291 workers, while its number of brokers was down by 10% to 188 people.
Most of the gains on the list came from the brokerage arms of banks.
No. 6 Wells Fargo Investments LLC saw the biggest numerical and percentage gain on the list, growing 42% to 150 people, 44 more than a year ago. Wells Fargo added 24 brokers for a total of 154.
“We are seeing tremendous growth,” said Matthew Healy, senior regional investment manager and senior vice president of Wells Fargo Private Asset Management Group in Newport Beach. “We are seeing investors shift to different asset classes from the real estate market.”
Wells Fargo is looking to add more people, according to Healy.
“We are very much in a growth mode. We are adding staff locally,” he said.
No. 5 Wachovia Securities LLC was another big gainer, adding 33 people for a total of 196, a 20% gain. Wachovia saw a 5% slip to 93 brokers.
Wachovia, which bought Prudential Securities Inc. three years ago, has eight local offices.
In March, Wachovia bought a majority stake in Newport Beach-based money manager Metropolitan West Capital Management LLC. Wachovia has a 72% stake in MetWest, which manages $4.5 billion in investments for wealthy and institutional investors.
Wachovia plans to fold MetWest, which has about 35 employees in Newport Beach, into its Evergreen Investments unit.
One brokerage arm of a big bank is missing from our list: Bank of America Corp.
(BofA declined to provide employment figures. And while our list includes estimates for six entries,including one company estimate,we don’t have a strong enough handle on BofA yet for an estimate. We hope to have an entry for the bank next year.)
OC’s homegrown brokerage and investment bank, No. 6 Newport Beach-based Roth Capital Partners LLC, saw a 13% rise to 150 workers. Roth’s broker count rose 8% to 42.
No. 8 Finance 500 Inc. in Irvine and No. 9 A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in Irvine switched spots from last year. Finance 500 grew its work force by 25% to 90 workers locally. A.G. Edwards cut by 8% to 77 people.
Irvine-based Brookstreet Securities Corp. rounded out the top 10 as it saw a 10% jump in OC employees to 75.
The brokerages are seeing good times for stocks on Wall Street.
After a summer lull, the major indexes have surged to record or multiyear highs in recent months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up nearly 10% for the year after going flat in July. The S & P; 500 is up 8% for the year, also after giving back earlier gains in July. Nasdaq is up about 3% for the year.
The gains come amid a leveling off in interest rates and moderating oil prices. Wall Street’s fall rally stands to be tested in coming weeks as Corporate America starts reporting results for the recently ended quarter.
Local brokerages still are off from the boom year of 2000, when there were 2,474 local workers and 1,530 brokers.
This year’s 5% increase in employment is the single biggest jump since a 15% rise in 2000.
Overall, six companies posted employee gains in the past year, with four reporting a decline and five unchanged,not counting five Business Journal estimates.
Merrill Lynch is looking to hang onto the No. 1 spot, according to the company’s Rolland, who moved a year ago to San Clemente from Princeton, N.J., where she was the brokerage’s national sales manager.
The brokerage expects growth of 5% this year and next, she said.
“It’s an unbelievably untapped market. The wealth here is staggering,” Rolland said. “We still feel like we’ve only scratched the surface.”
