Not job growth, but turnover, at least
Money managers jump ship for better opportunities
Wells Fargo & Co. chief economist John Silvia was in town yesterday, and, over fish and ale between meetings with small-business owners in Plymouth Meeting and at Turner Asset Management in Berwyn, he told me it's not exactly a jobless recovery: A lot of people are still losing their jobs, but more skilled people are now getting hired as the economy "slowly" picks up.
Job turnover is a good sign, and we've got a couple of fresh examples from the stock-picking business. $18 billion-asset Turner says it just hired veteran portfolio manager Christopher E. Baggini away from Aberdeen Asset Management, Philadelphia, to run the new Turner Titan long/short "diversified global portfolio" of large-cap stocks. He had run a simliar portfolio at Aberdeen.
Out in West Conshohocken, Boenning & Scattergood says it has hired utilities analyst R. Scott Graham away from Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. (he previously worked for Bear Stearns) to cover Aqua America, American Water Works and other water stocks. Graham replaces award-winning Boenning analyst Ryan Connors, who bolted to return to Janney Montgomery Scott's utilities team earlier this year.