Thirty-four percent of 200 small, midsize and large companies surveyed by Challenger, Gray & Christmas will not give year-end bonuses this year, up from 27 percent last year, the highest number of companies not giving bonuses since 2019. The survey was provided exclusively to The Wall Street Journal.

Wall Street will be hard hit. The Journal also reported that bonuses are projected to fall as much as 25 percent this year from last year for investment bankers who advise on mergers and acquisitions, according to Johnson Associates, a compensation-consulting firm for the financial-services industry, while equities traders could see their bonuses decline from 5 to 10 percent.

The year has been a difficult one for white-collar professionals. Nearly 400,000 tech workers have lost their jobs to date, according to Layoffs.fyi. Other big-name companies laying off workers include Goldman Sachs, Ford Motor and A.P. Moller-Maersk. Companies such as Microsoft, Walgreens Boots Alliance and Meta Platforms have warned that bonuses will be canceled or reduced for some employees this year.

Falling inflation is also a factor, as it puts less pressure on companies to dangle bonuses as a tool to retain workers, especially as many executives brace for slower growth in 2024, said Andy Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Holiday season bonuses, which have been used to motivate salaried workers, can range from gift cards for a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the role and industry. A recent survey of nearly 1,500 human-resource managers and professionals by SHRM, found that 29 percent would give cash bonuses during the holidays, and nearly half of that 29 percent said the bonuses would amount to the same as last year.

The situation is not all bad. Bonuses for wealth-management advisers are expected to rise by 5 percent, Johnson Associates Managing Director Alan Johnson, told the Journal, as “very rich people want advice.”

In addition, 96 percent of nearly 1,800 hiring managers surveyed in the fall by recruiting firm Robert Half—in fields such as law, accounting and marketing—were planning to award bonuses. Among professional-services firms, such as legal services and accounting, 54 percent of those surveyed said this year’s bonuses would be higher than last year’s, and 37 percent were planning to keep bonuses at the same level as 2022.