Mortgage Job Boom Continues

Mortgage companies added 3,000 new employees to their payrolls in the month of April as the mortgage boom shows few signs of slowing anytime soon.The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that jobs in the mortgage banker/broker sector increased from 421,800 in March to 424,800 in April. In the past 12 months, employment in the mortgage sector grew by 18%. "From January 2001 to February 2003, this [mortgage] industry added 123,000 workers, accounting for all the net growth in the finance industry," BLS said in its April employment report. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate rose from 5.8% in March to 6.0% in April. BLS reported that 48,000 workers lost their jobs in April. "This followed two months of job losses totaling 477,000," the BLS said. The agency can be found online at http://stats.bls.gov.