Mortgage Jobs Hit New High

Employment in the mortgage sector hit a new high in August as lenders resumed hiring and added 4,000 full-time employees to their payrolls, according to the September employment report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.The August increase erased a loss of 1,600 jobs in July. Total employment in the mortgage sector has increased by 27,200 since January. Friday's BLS report shows that jobs in the mortgage banking/broker sector rose from 455,700 in July to 459,900 in August. In 2003, jobs in the mortgage sector peaked at 457,300. (There is a one-month lag in BLS reporting of mortgage sector employment data. The September data will be released Nov. 5.) Meanwhile, the BLS reported that the economy generated 96,000 new jobs in September, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.4%. The BLS can be found online at http://stats.bls.gov.