Mortgage companies ended the year with 260,600 full-time employees on their payrolls, down slightly from 261,400 in December 2009.
However, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics adjusted upward its count of the industry's workforce by approximately 15,000 jobs.
For example, BLS originally estimated that total employment in the mortgage banker/broker sector was 245,300 full-time positions as of November 30. But the jobs report released Friday morning shows the industry had 261,200 full-time employees in November. (At the beginning of each year the agency engages in a more thorough restatement of its numbers from the previous 12 months.)
The new BLS report shows mortgage companies shed 600 workers in December. During the end of the month loan application volumes began to slow as interest rates climbed.
As of Friday morning, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury was at 3.6%, an indication that the days of a 4% 30-year FRM may be long gone.
Meanwhile, Friday's overall job report was another disappointment with the U.S. economy generating only 36,000 net new jobs in January. (The mortgage industry's job figures lag by one month.)
However, BLS revised upwards the increase in November jobs from 71,000 to 93,000, and the December jobs numbers from 103,000 to 121,000.
A panel of economists assembled by the American Bankers Association is forecasting that economic growth will pick up in 2011 and companies will hire 2.1 million workers, nearly double the number of new jobs created last year. If so, job growth will accelerate to 175,000 a month.
Mortgage firms are hoping that as more people return to work they will be able to make their mortgage payments or buy a new home.
