Employment data

But several companies have cuts pending, and overall employment remains strong enough to keep putting some upward pressure on rates.

The March estimates for payrolls of nonbanks involved in home lending confirm widespread anecdotal reports of industry layoffs, but strength in broader financial-services hiring could pick up the slack.

Broader hiring remained relatively strong and unemployment fell to a pandemic low during March, but a yield curve inversion — which can signal a recession — is concerning some.

But recent rate drops in response to the Ukraine invasion and increases in broader employment suggest another uptick in housing finance payrolls is not out of the question.

Employment numbers suggest that interest in home purchases is bearing up well despite some limits on consumer spending and normalization in the mortgage market after two banner years.

Total U.S. jobs came in below consensus estimates in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But the latest employment report also reveals that if construction hiring remains sufficiently strong, home purchase originations are on track to grow to $1.7 trillion from $1.6 trillion next year.

The deal between the two fintechs aims to cut mortgage decisioning times for lenders and expand access to financing for consumers.

Plans to taper rate stimulus could further dampen industry employment, depending on the extent to which decreased volume is offset by staffing needs driven by the shift to work-intensive purchase loans.

But overall improvement in September employment numbers are likely to encourage the Federal Reserve to begin tapering their asset purchases.