(Repeats to additional clients)

NEW YORK, Jan 8 (Reuters) - New York City's financial and insurance companies may shed 82,300 jobs in the 38-month period ending in the first quarter of 2011 and only a fourth of those may be restored by the following year, according to a report released said on Thursday.

The city as a whole could lose 242,700 jobs from the first quarter of 2008 through 2010, the report by the city's Independent Budget Office found.

"New York City has lagged the nation in its entry to this recession, but as the global center of the financial industry, the city's economy is expected to turn down more sharply, stay down longer, and recover more gradually than the nation as a whole," said the report.

The forecast contraction would be less severe than the 1988 to 1993 downturn, when 368,100 jobs were lost in the recession caused by the October 1987 stock market crash.

But it would eclipse job losses of 228,100 suffered in the 33-month period after the 2001 first quarter. That downturn was sparked by the bursting of the Internet bubble in 2000, and accelerated by the 2001 World Trade Center attacks.

Job cuts will further strain the city's finances. New York City may collect $6.7 billion less revenue than Mayor Michael Bloomberg has forecast for the period from 2009 to 2012, the report said.

Business taxes are expected to fall by $2.3 billion.

"Never before have business tax receipts fallen for three consecutive years; nor has the loss of revenue been as large as the one forecast," the report said.