The junior banker shortage has gotten so bad some Wall Street firms are lowering the standard for new hires

Hello!

Welcome to this weekly roundup of stories from Insider’s Business co-Editor in Chief Matt Turner. Subscribe here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Sunday.

What we’re going over today:

• A junior banker shortage is forcing rainmakers to do grunt work and firms are lowering the bar for new hires.
• Shopify is planning a big push into advertising with a new targeting tool.
• Congressional staffers make “poverty wages.” Eight Capitol Hill aides broke down how they stretch their paychecks to survive.
• OpenDoor, Zillow, and Redfin are paying cash to scoop up thousands of homes.

What’s trending this morning:

• Travis Kalanick said CloudKitchens would transform restaurants forever. But restaurant operators say that hasn’t really been the case.
• America’s top business leaders are trying to solve the country’s burnout crisis. Workers say it’s not enough.
  
• Sports-betting power players: Meet the 27 top executives pushing the US gambling industry forward in 2021.
• Inside Amazon’s “Pivot” program: Leaked documents show Amazon pays struggling employees as much as $30,000 to leave and never work at the company again.
• Do you work best from home, in an office, or something in between? This personality test could help you find out.

---

Investment banking’s labor shortage

The national dearth of employees hasn’t spared the banking industry. Without enough talent to handle workloads, banks are having to lower their hiring standards, and mid-level and senior bankers are having to roll up their sleeves:

Just months after junior bankers railed against management amid crushing levels of burnout, one of the root drivers of the problem has yet to be solved: Banks have too few hands on deck to handle their massive deal loads.

As a result, some senior bankers have been forced to work on deal processes that typically would have been relegated to the most entry-level employees, according to some banking insiders.

In some cases, the situation has gotten so dire that banks have had to turn away business.

Here’s what else you need to know:

• Investment banking’s labor crunch: A junior banker shortage is forcing rainmakers to do grunt work and firms are lowering the bar for new hires

Also read:

• Healthcare bankers are in high demand in an ‘extremely, extremely active’ hiring market. Here’s a rundown of 19 dealmaker moves.
• Young Canadian lawyers are getting 30% raises by joining crazy-busy US law firms

---

Shopify is pushing into advertising

In a major move for the e-commerce platform, Shopify is planning to unveil a tool to help advertisers target Facebook and Google ads. The tool would aggregate shopper data from Shopify’s 1.7 million businesses:

Shopify has not been directly involved in advertising, but that’s about to change.

The e-commerce-software company, which lets merchants sell products online, plans to roll out a tool called Shopify Audiences, according to retail and advertising sources familiar with Shopify’s plans.

Shopify will let advertisers use its data to target ads on Facebook and Google, according to these people, who said they saw a video tutorial that Shopify shared of the product.

Here’s how Shopify Audiences will work:

• Shopify is planning a big push into advertising with a new targeting tool

Also read:

• 19 of the most promising retail startups of 2021, according to top VCs
• Instacart wants to build a billion-dollar ad business and take on Amazon and Walmart- advertisers list 3 things it needs to do to get their budgets
  

---

Congressional staffers share their budgets

Some congressional staffers make “poverty wages,” starting in the low $20,000s. We spoke with eight current and former staffers, who shared their budgets to show how thin they were stretched:

An entire paycheck going to daycare. Vending-machine ice cream for dinner. Tossing hundreds of dollars at a decade’s worth of credit-card debt. Relying on income-assisted housing to keep a roof over their head.

These are the real-life budgets of Capitol Hill staffers, whose pay starts in the $20,000s to work demanding jobs in one of the most expensive cities in the country.

“The hardest thing for us is when we see members who are charging progressive causes, and even after knowing everything we’ve been through this year, say, ‘Here’s a turkey club sandwich and a salary that wouldn’t even get you an apartment you can afford,'” one legislative aide of a House Democrat said.

See their budgets – and how they make them work – here:

• Lots of congressional staffers make ‘poverty wages’ starting in the low $20,000s. 8 Capitol Hill aides break down how they stretch their paychecks to survive in one of the nation’s most expensive cities

Also read:

• The Biden administration has named a secretive private equity mogul with significant investment interests in climate-related businesses to help shape the US’s response to the climate crisis
• Here’s what $15,000 will buy lobbyists on Sen. Mike Crapo’s pay-for-access price list

---

iBuyers like OpenDoor and Zillow are booming

A growing number of homeowners are choosing to sell to iBuying firms like Opendoor and Zillow, which offer convenience and certainty – but generally pay below-market prices:

Amy Melcher has two young daughters, a demanding job as a public defender, and the responsibility of taking care of her father, Gary, who just turned 81 and is in poor health.

So when it came time to sell Gary’s single-level, three-bedroom home in Phoenix earlier this year to help pay for his move to an assisted-living facility, Melcher decided to eschew hiring a broker, putting the house on the market and scheduling showings with prospective bidders. She sold to Opendoor, one of several instant buyers, nicknamed iBuyers, that promise to streamline the normally tedious task of selling a home.

But convenience has a cost.

Less than two months after it purchased Melcher’s house for $259,700, Opendoor relisted the property for $304,000, a sum that would net it a tidy 17% profit, if it is able to sell for that amount.

Read up on the burgeoning iBuyer industry:

• OpenDoor, Zillow, and Redfin are paying cash to scoop up thousands of homes, sometimes selling them weeks later for more than they paid

Also read:

• Every house for sale right now kind of sucks
• How Austin lured 67,000 new residents last year: no state income tax and a rollicking social scene

---

Finally, here are some headlines you might have missed last week.

– Matt

• 18 investors and VC firms funding innovative startups in the creator economy and influencer industry
• Ad giant IPG is creating a new division to take on rivals WPP and Omnicom for healthcare dollars
• Bank of America says to buy these 31 small- and mid-cap stocks with average implied upside of nearly 30%, as they represent its best ideas for the 2nd half of 2021
• Cisco salaries revealed: How much the enterprise-tech giant pays engineers, analysts, and salespeople
• Retiring to France gives American expats one of the best double taxation agreements in the world. A financial planner breaks down what to consider before you go.
• Now may be the best time to switch jobs – and make more money
• Read the pitch deck Nylas used to raise a $120 million Series C to help companies ‘save thousands of hours’ when developing products
• Northwestern Mutual quietly built a $220 billion wealth management business. Now it’s eyeing its next big hiring push.