With globalization, changes in law, and the rise of the Internet, those who are interested in financial careers have more options for jobs and they also have vast knowledge and training needs.  As an example, a graduate from a US business school who wants to go into finance could work in the USA, Canada, UK, Dubai, Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, India and more.  They can go into banking, brokerage/investments, insurance or other related areas such as financial management i.e. managing financial information for small or large companies.  As there are vast,rules, regulations, and laws, many people in financial careers are required to understand the laws of the land, earn licenses that allow them to act in the capacity of sales or advising, along with building an understanding of products and services offered. 

As you know, many financial products and services are available in one country and not available in most others. Example 401K is an IRS law that allows us/or companies to set up retirement accounts with deferred taxation.   Furthermore, Wealth management is a high level form of private banking that provides various types of investment, insurance and bank products and services. With the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, financial firms were finally able to provide all three of the above services from the same offices. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_management 

The limited catagories of Securities, Commodities, Financial Services Sales, and Financial Analysts and Personal Financial Advisors are specific to the Sales Side of investments and investment and banking products.   Overall, bankers, stock brokers and insurance agents can now all be in the business of selling securities if they become licensed accordingly in the USA.   As an example: today, you can be an insurance salesperson who sells health and life insurance along with Annuities and Mutual Funds as long as you meet the licensing requirements.   In most larger US brokerages, there are sales divisions such as: Brokerage and Trading (stock brokers, local branches, trading services, and online trading) , Mutual Funds (either selling internal funds or outside funds) , Investment Management (which sells or outsources to private portfolio management sometimes internal also) , Wealth Management Advisory (which provides high net worth advise from internal experts and allows meeting the objectives or the rich customers, cross-selling, bringing in lawyers or CPAs, and integration of products and services), Trust Departments (which managed trusts or act as custodians over assets for the living or deceased), Research (many large brokerages or banks may have a research department which provides "coverage" over stocks or industries. The research departments often produce analysis and publications that they sell or provide to their best clients or online), and Wholesalers (these guys go from city to city to promote pre-packaged products such as mutual funds or annuities or college 529 plans to be sold internally or externally)  

As for sales jobs, the number of sales persons seems to be getting consolidated and reduced due to ONLINE trading services and the quality of online sales of insurance or other financial services. With this in mind, there must be huge growth in technology jobs related to online financial services. I would imagine that the NYSE, NASDAQ, and top financial institutions have many many jobs in financial/technology and regulating and protecting the information and markets. Overall, research or financial analyst jobs are only a small fraction of the jobs available in finance and may become smaller due to the increased ability of press & information to be disseminated online.  

As for an MBA, this degree is useful for finance jobs in the USA particularly if you do not want to be on the producer or sales side of things.  Top grads from great MBA programs with a little experience can receive very high salaries right out of school in Financial Centers such as New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, London or other financial center. However ,the MBA is not necessary.  These days many people would rather achieve a strong undergraduate business education from an AACSB, ACBSP or Equis accredited business school and then focus on a job and Certification in a specific area from AAFM. Further, the JD or law degree is more and more important to be involved with Trust Department Jobs or Compliance and Regulatory Jobs.  However, may lawyers want an AAFM training and certification in Wealth Management,  Trust, Compliance, Risk or AML.

Cyclical markets do hamper employment opportunities. For instance, there was a virtual hiring and freeze in Finance from 2001-2003 for non-essential employees.  Moreover, in a recession, financial institutions really pair back expenses and so called "cost centers" These are areas or departments in the company that do not produce profit or maybe only produce value add services. Thus, there is more safety to work in a "profit center" that is not hurt by recessions or market down-turns.  

The TREND.  I believe that boutique financial services and hedge fund services has been the biggest trend over the last 7 years.  With major companies such as Fidelity and Schwab providing "institutional management services", somebody like you or me can file for a RIA Registered Investment Advisor License and start our own portfolio management or wealth management firm.  We could even start our own hedge fund with very little regulation unless we got big.   These boutique firms  and other firms that are sometimes called "Family Offices"  provide portfolio management for a fee. i.e. 1% per year.  As such, the brokerage industry has moved rather quickly toward the fee-based model of financial services over the last 10 years.

Thus, even Merrill Lynch, Goldman and the rest would rather have fee-based accounts where they make 1-2 percent of the principle (per quarter/and per year) than accounts that are dormant and only make money when trades occur.  Therefore, many college grads will get a few years of experience with a big brokerage house and then go apply for a job with a small boutique portfolio management or Wealth Management firm.  I believe that there are well over 50,000 registered investment advisors in the USA.  These are typically small firms that manage from 10 to 300 million dollars. The clients are managed by the RIAs and the actual money management infrastructure, custodial services, trading platforms and such are outsourced to Schwab or Fidelity for about .25  or 1/4 of a percent of the quarterly assets under management.  The statements and invoices are even customized for your firm by Schwab and Fidelity.   Here is a nice article for your review: http://www.schwabinstitutional.com/tour_ria.html 

In sum, the trend is to go independent or to work for a small firm where you can become an owner or partner.   On the flip side, if you get into a management position with a bank, brokerage, or insurance company, you can make a great career and have many benefits such as:  Health and Life Insurance, Receive Training while you are paid,  You are provided Offices,  you can earn licensed etc, receive tuition reimbursement, You may one day received Stock Options, earn upward mobility, & build your resume etc.  

The other trend was set in the late 1990s by big brokerage firms and banks.  The trend has been to create a "one stop shop" for clients.  Thus, firms try and have their clients create and hold or buy: stock accounts, online accounts, insurance, banking, credit cards, and even a mortgage with you.  In this way, they create a very loyal customer who can't leave you very easily.