Mortgage Industry Continues to Tap Temp Workforce

The mortgage industry continues to shrink in terms of full-time employees as companies rely more on temporary workers to deal with servicing and origination demand. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that mortgage companies cut 3,700 full-time workers from their payrolls in October, including 1,700 mortgage brokers. Overall employment in the mortgage banker/broker sector fell to 255,500 in October from 259,200 in September. "You have a lot of temps being hired," a Mortgage Bankers Association executive said, noting that those figures do not show up in the BLS mortgage sector data. MBA associate vice president of industry analysis Marina Walsh said that mortgage firms are definitely hiring servicing-related workers but it is hard for them to justify hiring full-timers given the volatility in the market. "To forecast what it going to happen with originations and interest rates is very difficult," she said. Meanwhile, Friday's jobs report provided some good news with the national unemployment rate falling to 10% from 10.2% previously. BLS also revised downward the job losses in October and September - by a combined 150,000. (There is a one-month lag in BLS reporting of mortgage industry employment data.)