More than a hundred employees have been laid off by Guaranteed Rate Inc. But the company says that it still has plans to hire more new employees this year than in any other previous year.
The Chicago-based mortgage banking firm said in a written statement to Mortgage Daily that it has taken steps to
re-balance the organization.
The job cuts targeted areas where Guaranteed Rate was overstaffed, according to the statement. Impacted positions are in loan production.
The move will enable it to provide more competitive mortgage rates.
The layoffs took place this month and impacted fewer than 180 people — including around 30 Chicago employees.
Overall, less than 5 percent of its headcount was impacted. Guaranteed
reported a staff of 3,442 as of Dec. 31, 2017.
“We have had two consecutive months of our strongest recruitment efforts in the company’s history, hiring more than 120 loan originators,” the statement said. “And, we continue to recruit and hire aggressively in growth areas across the country.
“In fact, we expect to hire more than 1,500 team members in 2018, which would be our largest hiring growth year in the company’s history. “
Guaranteed Rate said it expects 2018 to be a record year for mortgage originations. Its strongest year was in 2016, when nearly $23 billion was originated.
