The mortgage industry and the broader economy saw monthly strengthening in the employment sector. Unemployment fell to the lowest level since before the financial crisis.
U.S. employers in all
industries increased non-farm payroll employment by 223,000 jobs in April, according to data from the Department of Labor.
Employment bounced back from the pathetic reading for March, when a revised
85,000 jobs were added. The month-earlier number was originally reported at 126,000 — a figure that had the markets reeling at the time.
In April 2014, 330,000 jobs were added to the national workforce.
U.S. unemployment
came in at 5.4 percent — the lowest rate since May 2008.
The unemployment rate was 5.5 percent in March and 6.2 percent a year earlier.
BLS data for just real estate finance, which is available a month after the general data, indicate
that 284,500 people worked in non-bank mortgage jobs during March.
Mortgage staffing increased from 282,600 the prior month and was also up from 273,100 in March 2014.
Positions classified as “real estate credit” numbered 211,400 during the most-recent month, expanding from 209,600 in February.
“Real estate credit” employment has grown substantially since March 2014, when the total was just 203,000.
“Mortgage and nonmortgage loan brokers” inched up to 73,100 from 73,000 in February.
As was the case with “real estate credit” employees, broker count made a more impressive gain from a year earlier, when the total was 70,100.
Based on origination share data maintained by Mortgage Daily, estimated total employment in the mortgage industry — including bank and non-bank jobs — was 570,600 in March, more than the 566,800 estimated as of the previous month.
But total mortgage staffing has declined since March 2014, when
an estimated 597,000 people were on mortgage employers’ payrolls.
The March 2015 estimate included 225,400 employees at federally insured banks, 60,700 mortgage jobs at credit unions and the 284,500 non-bank jobs reported by the BLS.
