The latest nonbank mortgage payroll estimates in the Bureau of Labor Statistics current data set inched up to a series high for the fourth month in a row, but were only marginally higher than they were the previous month.
At 361,800, there were only slightly more mortgage banker and broker jobs in the market in November 2020 than there were
A slowdown in gains that may be temporary and potentially tied to seasonal slowing is expected to follow because an uptick in infections began to affect
Anecdotally, mortgage lenders continue to show interest in hiring and say that, although forecasts for 2021 suggest
“I would say in this market, no one has caught up with capacity,” said Kimberly Browne, president of Chrysalis Holdings, the parent company for New Day, a national lender headquartered in Fulton, Md., that specializes in loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Many lenders have been stretching their existing teams with overtime, and the ability many employees have to work remotely without a commute has helped make that possible for longer than it normally would. But some teams are wearing thin, and that’s maintaining hiring interest.
At the same time, with the possibility of slowdown in mind, companies are engaging in strategies aimed at limiting compensation spending and potential layoffs down the road.
New Day, for example, is doing this by training more entry-level employees where appropriate, Browne said. Underwriters in particular have been in demand and can command high salaries, so that’s been a particular area of focus. The company finds that the median value for the amount spent on university-educated new hires is one-third more cost-effective compared to hiring an underwriter from a competitor, she said.
Hiring interest in the mortgage industry remains in sharp contrast to a larger job market, which is still exhibiting an unemployment rate well above that seen pre-pandemic. That potentially limits the numbers of borrowers that qualify for loans.
Overall unemployment, which is reported with less of a lag than mortgage jobs, matched the previous month’s 6.7% in December 2020 and was down from 4% in December 2019. On an adjusted basis, the unemployment rate would have been 0.6% higher.
In total, 140,000 U.S. jobs were lost in December 2020, compared to an addition of 245,000 the previous month and an addition of 145,000 in December 2019.
While the December 2020 number marks the first drop in employment since April and suggests there will be “permanent economic scarring,” the outlook for residential real estate remains strong, Odeta Kushi, First American deputy chief economist, said Friday in a press statement.
“Housing remains a bright spot entering 2021,” Kushi said. “Residential construction jobs increased nearly 1.1% in December relative to November and are now 0.8% above their pre-pandemic levels in February. Increasing the number of construction workers is critically important to alleviating the labor shortage challenge and the gap between household formation and home building. More hammers, more homes.”
