Layoffs from the Subprime Crisis

Last year, there were 153,105 financial sector job cuts announced, according to Challenger, compared to 50,327 in 2006.

“In all my years in financial services, I have never seen it this bad,” one high-powered securities industry lawyer told The Post. “I have owners of small firms calling me up saying their liabilities now exceed their assets, which means by law they are required to close down.”

The lawyer said he had two 50-something Wall Street guys call him this week, who, he said, “had lost hope, crying on the phone.”

“It is call after call after call like these,” he said.

Last week was the fourth weekly decline in the widely watched Dow Jones industrial average, which closed Friday at 12,099, dragging it down 8.7 percent so far this year.

John Challenger, CEO of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, predicts more layoffs in the financial services sector in the coming weeks unless Wall Street activity picks up soon.