The employment report for last month was a stark improvement from the dismal report for September as unemployment fell to its lowest level since 2000. Mortgage staffing was reduced, though.
U.S. employers
added 261,000 nonfarm payroll positions during October, according to Friday’s employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Job growth skyrocketed from just 18,000 during the
preceding month when hurricanes disrupted the market. September’s figures were revised up from the 33,000 loss originally reported.
The employment gain also surged past the downwardly revised 124,000 jobs added in October 2016.
Last month’s activity left the labor force at 147,010,000.
“The October jobs report was modestly positive, on net,” National Association of Federally Insured Credit Unions Chief Economist Curt Long said in a written statement. “Job growth fell slightly below expectations, but when paired with the sizable upward revisions to prior month data, the results were solid.”
At 4.1 percent, the U.S. unemployment rate was the lowest it has been since
December 2000, when it was 3.9 percent.
The labor force participation rate declined to 62.7 percent from 63.1 percent in September and
62.8 percent in October 2016.
“The data is likely to continue to be choppy for the next few months due to weather impact, but this report was strong enough to keep the Fed on track for a rate hike in December,” NAFCU’s Long added.
Non-bank mortgage staffing, which the BLS reports one month later than overall figures, was 342,100 in September 2017. Headcount declined from an upwardly revised 343,700 in August. Still, there were more people working in the business than in September 2016, when the total was an upwardly revised 324,600.
The latest
mortgage total consisted of 243,700 “real estate credit” jobs and 98,400 “mortgage and nonmortgage loan brokers.”
Using the BLS data and origination market share data, Mortgage Daily estimates that total mortgage industry staffing, including jobs at financial institutions, was 657,100 — including 250,900 mortgage jobs at banks, 64,100 home-lending positions at credit unions and the 342,100 non-bank jobs reported by the BLS.
