Mortgage employment tumbled to its lowest level since 2004.
There were 471,000 people working in mortgage lending during April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced today. The latest month was down 10,200 jobs from March and 30,400 jobs worse than April 2006.
Employment in real estate finance has not been this weak since November 2004 — when there were 468,800 people reported in the sector, according to data from the bureau, a division of the U.S. Department of Labor. Contributing to the latest decline were layoffs at ABN AMRO Mortgage Group, Mortgage Investment Lending Associates — or MILA, and Residential Capital LLC.
People working in “real estate credit” totaled 330,300 in April — accounting for almost all of the monthly decline, according to the figures, which are released about 30 days following the end of each month. “Mortgage and nonmortgage loan brokers” accounted for 140,700 of April’s total.
Unemployment was 4.5 percent in May, unchanged from the prior month, the report indicated.
