Working at a state pension fund isn't looking so bad anymore. Cantor Fitzgerald adds slots for bond sales and trading pros and investment bankers.

Here's a fresh refuge for Wall Streeters cut adrift by the bank meltdown: managing state and local employee retirement funds. Public-sector fund employers advertising openings recently include the California Public Employees' Retirement System (Calpers), Teacher Retirement System of Texas, the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, the Teachers' Retirement System of Louisiana and the Wyoming Retirement System. The openings, which range from senior analyst to chief investment officer, tend to pay far less than private-sector investment professional roles. But the public sector offers better job security and shorter work hours, The Wall Street Journal observes.

Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. has hiring plans. According to Investment Dealers' Digest, the New York-based company will hire 100 people for its fixed-income business alone this year. Already, it's hired 20 specialists for a developing high-yield bond business, and is bringing on as many as 25 investment bankers, along with sales and trading professionals.

Congress approved $787 billion in new spending to stimulate the economy and preserve jobs. Somebody tell that to the 13.2 million Americans who work in the leisure and hospitality industry - whose customers are standing aside in droves, partly because of those very same lawmakers' sermons against corporate "excess."

Washington smells blood in the water in relation to retention payments for brokers at merged institutions. The Washington Post reports public perception helped convince Wachovia, now part of Wells Fargo, to cancel payouts it had expected to make to induce brokers to stay on post-merger. Retention payments from the pending Morgan Stanley-Citigroup joint venture, and from Bank of America to top-producing Merrill Lynch brokers, are drawing lawmakers' attention too. Meanwhile, rivals like UBS are seeking to poach top brokers by dangling recruiting packages "recently broaching nearly three times a broker's annual production," the Post says.

The ugly face of cross-border protectionism is hitting the U.S. financial industry and business schools, forcing Bank of America to rescind job offers it made to as many as 50 graduating M.B.A. students who aren't U.S. citizens. BofA is the first bank to take this step, but might not be the last, reports the Financial Times. A provision of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill prevents financial institutions receiving money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program from applying for H1-B visas for highly skilled immigrants if they have laid off U.S. workers.

Attention, international economists: If the bond market's collapse has left you out in the cold, think about intelligence work. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency recently began producing a daily Economic Intelligence Brief for the government's top economic policy makers. That follows the surprise elevation of foreign economic concerns to the top of the Worldwide Threat Assessment, an annual report presented to Congress by Dennis Blair, the new director of national intelligence.

Job and internship opportunities for students in Canadian MBA. programs appear to be dwindling as companies keep a clamp on hiring. Though Canadian banks have outperformed their U.S. counterparts, recruiters in Canada say hiring is less robust than in previous years. In response, some students are extending their studies, aiming to get an edge from additional degrees and certifications such as the CFA.