After eliminating 83,000 jobs since July 2007, Wall Street is still only in the early stages of downsizing.

Bloomberg today reports that globally, financial firms have let go more than 83,000 people since July 2007. But there is a silver lining, the percentage of job cuts following the bursting of the tech bubble and 9/11 is far less. The recent cuts stand at 3.3 percent at 28 financial firms compared to 17 percent of the banking and securities jobs lost in New York less than a half-decade ago according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

However, with $383 billion in writedowns and losses many say to expect the layoffs to increase. Sandy Weill, chairman emeritus of Citigroup is quoted saying "I think this is tougher" referring to the last market decline. Citigroup has announced cuts of about 4 percent of their workers, or about 15,900 worldwide.

It doesn't look better across the pond in London. Estimates from the Center for Economics and Business Research are forecasting a 5.4 percent decline, or a figure of 19,225 finance jobs to be lost in 2008 and 2009.

With profit declines of more than 40% among the bulge bracket firms of Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers in the first quarter, estimates for the second quarter are very bleak with Lehman expected to report a loss for the second quarter.