The latest employment report was strong — with a solid increase in U.S. jobs, a higher labor participation rate and a nice bump in mortgage jobs.
For the month of July,
total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 255,000 jobs from the prior month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
Although the number of jobs added was down from
the upwardly revised 292,000 in June, it still represented a solid month of U.S. job growth.
The latest numbers were also shy of the
upwardly revised 277,000 expansion in July 2015.
Last month’s unemployment rate was 4.9 percent, the same as a month earlier but lower than 5.3 percent a year earlier.
Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate inched up to 62.8 percent from 62.7 percent in June and was also stronger than 62.6 percent in July 2015.
National Association of Federal Credit Unions Chief Economist Curt Long said last month represented “another strong report.” He noted that all the significant metrics fared well.
“The labor market should remain strong as long as consumers maintain their robust spending pace,” Long added in the written statement. “While this was a second consecutive strong jobs report, it will not be enough to move the needle for the Fed.”
The solid report had the yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbing 5 basis points in early trading from yesterday’s close to 1.56 percent.
Moving on to the mortgage industry,
which is reported on a one-month lag, there were 307,000 people working in non-bank mortgage jobs during June.
Mortgage staffing
jumped from an downwardly revised 301,100 in the previous report and an upwardly revised 295,300 in the year-previous report.
The June 2016 total
reflected 222,500 employees classified as “real estate credit” and 84,500 “mortgage and nonmortgage loan brokers.”
Using the BLS data and origination market share statistics, Mortgage Daily estimates that total mortgage industry employment — including jobs at financial institutions — was around 642,600 as of the most-recent month.
Estimated mortgage employment expanded from 630,300 in May and
627,300 in June 2015.
The June 2016 mortgage total was comprised of
276,100 mortgage jobs at banks, 59,600 home-lending positions at credit unions and the 307,000 non-bank employees reported by the BLS.
