Financier flows

We can now track human capital flows as well as capital flows :-)

Despite apocalyptic predictions, it appears (from LinkedIn data) that most financiers who lost their jobs during the credit crisis remained in the industry.

LinkedIn analytics: ... At LinkedIn we have a unique view into the ebbs and flows of labor markets and one trend we noticed was there were beneficiaries of these large-scale upheavals. In particular, we saw substantial spikes in user activity for the following 5 companies during major financial events:

Barclays
Credit Suisse
Citigroup
Bank Of America
JP Morgan Chase

Each of these firms saw an increase in the LinkedIn activity of their employees, measured by member registrations or updates to the individual’s company title on LinkedIn. This activity coincided with key corporate announcements such as the acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank Of America, or the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy announcement.

Where did all these employees go? One hypothesis is that many of the employees left the financial industry. According to the LinkedIn data set, that just isn’t true. There are a handful of people that did transition to other industries and start new careers, but most stayed in the financial space.

(Thanks to Tim O'Reilly for pointing this out to me.)