Although U.S. employers in all industries saw robust hiring last month, the latest statistics for the mortgage industry indicate that staffing contracted again.
Nonfarm payrolls increased by a preliminary 228,000 positions during November, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That was slightly less than the downwardly revised 244,000 jobs added the prior month but an increase from the downwardly revised 164,000 a year prior.
The report indicated that the unemployment rate was unchanged from October at 4.1 percent. Unemployment was
down, however, from 4.6 percent in November 2016.
Also unchanged in November was the labor participation rate: 62.7 percent.
During the same 30-day period last year, the rate was 62.6 percent.
In a written statement, National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions Chief Economist Curt Long called the report “solid,” though wage growth was weak.
“But the addition of 230,000 jobs combined with steady unemployment will not give the Fed any pause as officials prepare to raise rates later this month,” Long added.
Real estate finance jobs data, which the BLS reports one month later than the aggregate data, indicate that there were 340,600 people in non-bank
mortgage jobs as of October.
Mortgage employment was reduced from 342,100 a month earlier, when headcount was also lower. There has been, however, growth from an upwardly revised 327,300 positions in the same month last year.
The most-recent month’s total included 242,700 jobs classified as “real estate credit,”
down from 243,600 in September. “Mortgage and nonmortgage loan brokers” fell to 97,900 in October from 98,500 the preceding month.
Extrapolating the BLS data using origination market share, Mortgage Daily estimates that total mortgage industry employment — including home-lending workers at financial institutions — was 654,200 during the latest month.
Included in the estimate were 249,800 mortgage employees at banks, 63,800 mortgage positions at credit unions and the 340,600 non-bank jobs reported by the BLS.
