Mortgage companies added more jobs during September. Sector improvement came as U.S. employers increased payrolls by over 200,000 jobs in all industries — with the unemployment rate sinking to the lowest level in more than six years.
U.S. jobs expanded by 214,000 employees during October, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Job growth slowed from the previous month’s 248,000 expansion in nonfarm payroll employment.
But anything north of 200,000 tends to be received well lately. The nonfarm number was 204,000 in October 2013.
The bureau, a division of the Department of Labor, said the unemployment rate was 5.8 percent last month.
It was July 2008, before the financial crisis peaked while George W. Bush was still president, when the revised unemployment rate was last this low.
Unemployment improved from the 5.9 percent rate a month earlier and 7.2 percent a year earlier, according to revised data from BLS.
While stock prices were little moved, the price of the 10-year Treasury note was up 17/32 in early trading. Bond yields fall when bond prices rise.
Among non-bank mortgage employers, 289,000 people were collectively on the September payrolls. Mortgage jobs data is reported by BLS on a one-month lag.
Mortgage staffing grew from 286,300 as of August. The prior-month figure was revised up from 286,200 originally reported.
But the industry has contracted compared to September 2013, when there were 297,400 people in the mortgage business. The year-earlier total was revised up from 286,200 originally reported.
Positions classified as “real estate credit” made up 215,300 of September 2014’s mortgage total.
“Real estate credit” was up from a revised 214,300 the prior month but tumbled from a revised 224,000 the same month in the prior year.
“Mortgage and nonmortgage loan brokers” made up another 73,700 of the most recent mortgage total, climbing from 72,000 in August and also up from a revised 73,400 in September of last year.
Utilizing origination market share data along with the BLS statistics, Mortgage Daily estimates that around 684,000 people, including mortgage employees at banks and credit unions, were employed in the mortgage business in September.
Total industry staffing grew from an estimated 678,000 the previous month.
But estimated total headcount in real estate finance has thinned considerably compared to the 751,000 figure in the same month last year.
