Rocket, Academy Mortgage undergo headcount corrections

Tough market conditions have continued to weigh on lenders, as a result, rightsizing and consolidation have continued. Both Rocket Mortgage and Academy Mortgage, the latter of which will soon to be acquired by Guild Mortgage, revealed headcount reductions recently. 

Rocket Mortgage, one of the biggest retail lenders in the nation, saw its workforce shrink by about 20%, or 3,800 employees, from 2022 to the end of 2023, the company revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 29.

As of December 2023, the Detroit-based lender had close to 14,700 team members based in the U.S. and Canada, down from 18,500 team members at the end of 2022 and 26,000 employees in 2021. 

A spokeswoman for the lender pointed to a challenging market in 2023 as the reason for the headcount drop.

"In order to right-size our business to fit the current market, we offered a voluntary career transition program to select groups within the organization, providing significant cash incentives, extended healthcare and other support to those who chose to participate," Rocket's spokeswoman added. 

In July 2023, Rocket offered voluntary buyouts to an undisclosed number of employees; it also rightsized its marketing department half a year prior.

Most recently, the lender announced it is closing its Rocket Pro Originate business, which sponsors real estate agents and other financial services professionals to help customers obtain mortgages. 

The announcement follows Rocket's fourth quarter earnings report, in which it posted a $233 million net loss, but an adjusted net loss of $6 million. The lender and servicer said its prowess in artificial intelligence is giving it an edge in origination efficiency. 

Academy, which will be integrated as a division of Guild by the end of March, let go of 250 employees, a WARN notice filed in Utah Feb. 28 shows. The layoff will go into effect March 15 and will most likely impact employees in operations.

In an earlier interview, CEO of Guild Terry Schmidt, said the acquisition would bring over a little more than 800 loan officers and related sales, fulfillment and support staff.

"We really want to make sure that they keep their origination platform together and all of the loan officers that have local processing, funding and underwriting that support them," Schmidt said. "There's some redundancies in certain positions, it's pretty standard, but you know, although everybody in the organization is important, those final decisions really are more on the Academy side as far as how the redundancies and how that's handled."