Throughout the 2016 election cycle, many millennials have shown their support for Bernie Sanders’ and Hillary Clinton’s promises to reform Wall Street by breaking up big banks. However, when looking for employment, millennials are trying to work for the big banks they supposedly resent.
Goldman Sachs received more than 250,000 applications for summer positions, a 40 percent increase compared to 2012, according to the Financial Times. With 36,000 employees, Goldman Sachs could never possibly employ all of the people who applied for a position.
Goldman Sachs said that 223,849 undergraduates applied for summer jobs and new analyst positions in 2016, a 46 percent increase from 2012. MBA students submitted 30,542 applications for associate positions, a 15 percent increase over their 2012 number.
A November survey by Emolument showed that Goldman Sachs was the top bank that students want to work for. But Goldman Sachs is not the only big bank that is getting a lot of job applications for few positions. Other Wall Street banks gave the Financial Times numbers that show how high the demand is for jobs in the banking industry.
At Bank of America Merrill Lynch, only 3 percent of applicants for jobs in its investment banking division were offered a job.
Only 2.7 percent of applicants for analyst and associate positions in the investment banking division at Citigroup were offered a job.
JP Morgan only offered 2 percent of job applicants for its investment banking division. They saw a 40 percent increase from 2014 in graduate applications.
Morgan Stanley receives 8,000 application for 100 positions each year, a 1 percent job offer rate.
Deutsche Bank grew its intern poll by 9 percent compared to a year ago. Applications for those positions increased globally by 14 percent for its investment banking division.
While millennials have voiced their support for the anti-big bank rhetoric preached by many Democratic politicians, the demand for investment banking jobs show that millennials realize that big banks provide well-paying jobs that can help them pay off their student loan debt.
