While U.S. employment posted its third consecutive monthly gain of at least 200,000 jobs, the news wasn’t so good for the mortgage industry. Mortgage brokers took the biggest hit.
The government reported Friday that the number of people who worked in real estate finance came in at 262,100 during January.
Mortgage staffing declined from 265,300 employees in December, according to the figures released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Helping to reduce January’s industry headcount was MetLife Home Loans, which that same month said it would shut down in a move that will ultimately impact around 4,300 people; and Bank of America Corp., which disclosed in September 2011 plans to eliminate 30,000 jobs over the next few years.
However, the bureau has regularly been making significant upward revisions to its mortgage employment data, and it’s possible that January’s loss could turn into a gain as the numbers are adjusted in subsequent reports.
The drop in mortgages jobs was even more stark when compared to January 2011, when industry headcount was a revised 272,400. Mortgage employment for a year earlier was originally reported at 249,400.
Jobs in “real estate credit” declined to 208,000 from 209,200 in the final month of last year.
“Mortgage and nonmortgage loan brokers” fell to 54,100 in January from 56,100.
The bureau, which is a division of the Department of Labor, said that among all U.S. industries, nonfarm payroll employment grew by a healthy 227,000 during February.
It was the third consecutive month that at least 200,000 U.S. jobs were added.
There was no change in the U.S. unemployment rate from January, with February’s rate at 8.3 percent.
