Mortgage Jobs Decline Again

Mortgage companies dropped 9,100 full-time employees from their payrolls in November, and over 100,000 mortgage-related jobs have been lost in the wake of the subprime meltdown.The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Jan. 4 that employment in the mortgage banker/broker sector declined from 401,000 in October to 391,900 in November. Nearly 110,000 loan officers and other mortgage workers have lost their jobs or left the industry since November 2006. Over the same period, 200,000 construction workers have lost their jobs. Meanwhile, President Bush is considering new initiatives to stimulate the economy and stabilize the housing market. And Friday's dismal jobs report, which indicates that the unemployment rate jumped from 4.7% to 5.0% in one month, is going to put more pressure on White House officials to come up with a stimulus package to reverse a slowing economy. The BLS can be found online at http://stats.bls.gov.