New government data indicate U.S. employment was strong last month. In the mortgage industry, overall staffing expanded even though broker count fell.
U.S. businesses maintained 148.662 million non-farm employees on their payrolls during May, according to data published Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Last month’s headcount was a solid increase of 223,000 jobs compared to the downwardly revised 159,000 positions added during the preceding month.
It was also much stronger than the upwardly revised
155,000 jobs that were added in the same month last year.
At 3.8 percent, the unemployment rate was the lowest it’s been since it was also
3.8 percent in April 2000. The rate was 3.9 percent in April 2018 and 4.3 percent in May 2017.
The labor participation rate slipped to 62.7 percent from 62.8 percent and was the same as 12 months earlier.
Average hourly wages of $26.92 were higher than $26.84 in April and $26.21 in May of last year.
In just the real estate finance sector, there were 338,100 non-bank jobs reported for April 2018 by the BLS. Mortgage staffing was up 700 jobs from the upwardly revised level for the prior month. Industry headcount also expanded from the same month last year, when the total was a downwardly revised
332,100,
Robert Eyler Ph.D., the dean at Sonoma State University’s School of Extended and International Education and board member at Redwood Credit Union, noted in a written statement that the increased mortgage hiring is supporting an ongoing expansion of credit markets.
“It is a sign that financial markets are seeing more non-mortgage debt while interest rates remain relatively low,” Eyler said.
The latest total included 246,000 “real estate credit” employees, rising from an upwardly revised 244,600 in March.
But the number of “mortgage and nonmortgage loan brokers” declined to 92,100 in April from an upwardly revised 92,800.
Extrapolating the BLS data based on origination market share, Mortgage Daily estimates that total mortgage industry employment — including positions at financial institutions — was 662,700 during April 2018.
Included in the estimate were 262,900 mortgage jobs at banks, 61,700 home-lending employees at credit unions and the the 338,100 non-bank jobs reported by the BLS.
