Mortgage Industry Employment Down 18% Over Past Year

Employment in the mortgage industry fell 18% in 2008 as nearly 60,000 full-time workers lost their jobs, according to new government figures released Friday. In December alone 4,800 full-timers were let go even though interest rates fell and refi applications began to pile up at month's end. Mortgage companies are using increased productivity to substitute for hiring people, according to Orawin Velz, director for economic forecasting at the Mortgage Bankers Association. "Some lenders are managing their pipelines by quoting higher rates," she said. "Unless they see a sustained increase in volume they don't want to hire right now," she said. The mortgage banking and brokerage segments now employ about 280,000 workers compared to more than 500,000 two years ago, meaning the industry is off 44% from its peak. Meanwhile, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics made a huge annual adjustment -- of 52,800 jobs -- in its mortgage employment figures for 2008. BLS originally reported that employment in the mortgage banker/broker sector was 337,600 in November. But it then revised downward that number to 284,800 in Friday's jobs report. The revision shows that BLS under-estimated the amount of job losses early in the recession for all workers, not just those employed in housing finance.