"The securities industry has already lost tens of thousands of jobs and the industry is still continuing to write off toxic assets," says DiNapoli in a release. "It's painfully obvious that 2009 will probably be another difficult year for the industry."

DiNapoli's office estimates that the bonus pool paid by the securities industry to its employees in New York City totaled $18.4 billion in '08--based on personal income tax collections and other factors--including industry revenue and expense trends. This represents a 44% drop compared with the $32.9-billion pool seen in 2007. The $14.5-billion decline is the largest on record in absolute dollars and the largest percentage decline in more than 30 years. However, the size of the bonus pool is still the sixth largest on record, according to DiNapoli.

The average bonus declined by 36.7% to $112,000 in '08. The decline in the average bonus was smaller than the decline in the bonus pool because the pool was shared among fewer workers as Wall Street downsized by 10.2%. DiNapoli says the reduction in bonuses will cost the state nearly $1 billion in personal income tax revenues and the city another $275 million.