Mortgage brokers kept national headcount in real estate finance from contracting on a monthly basis. A couple of big names were behind a non-broker decline.
Mortgage industry staffing crept up to a preliminary estimate of 295,300 in July.
There was little change from the previous month, a period that saw a national collective staff that totaled a downwardly revised 295,000.
During the same month in 2012, an upwardly revised 274,800 employees were classified as mortgage.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the monthly numbers.
Behind July’s slight increase were “mortgage and nonmortgage loan brokers” jobs, which rose to a preliminary 80,100 jobs from 78,900 the prior month.
Broker jobs were well ahead of their 71,800 level at the same point last year.
July’s total number would have been better had it not been for the decline in “real estate credit,” which moved down to 215,200 from 216,100.
Among companies impacting July’s “real estate credit” employees were JPMorgan Chase &Â Co., which is cutting an estimated 1,800 positions during the third quarter; Mortgage Investors Corp., which laid off 380 people in St. Petersburg, Fla., during July; and Citibank, N.A., which eliminated 121 jobs in Danville, Ill., on July 16.
“Real estate credit” expanded, however, from 203,000 in July 2012.
More recently, U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased 169,000 in August, a little better than the 162,000 jobs added the prior month.
U.S. unemployment was 7.4 percent last month, lower than 7.3 percent in July.
