Monthly non-bank mortgage staffing contracted, while jobs data for all industries was weak. But the nation’s unemployment rate fell to the lowest level since the turn of the century.
The U.S. nonfarm labor force was reported Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics at a preliminary 148.424 million employees as of April.
While the gain of 164,000 positions from a month earlier was subdued, it was still elevated versus March — when an upwardly revised 135,000 jobs were added.
But the gain was less than in April 2017, when a downwardly revised 175,000 jobs were added.
In a written statement jointly provided by the credit union leagues of California and Nevada prior to the release of the data, California Credit Union League Chief Economist Dwight Johnston noted that job growth for April 2018 had been expected to be more normal at around 180,000 positions.
“A second month of surprisingly weak growth would certainly raise fears the economy is not getting the boost that was expected from the congressional tax cut bill,” the economist stated.
But Johnston noted that bond traders will be most concerned about average hourly wages — which were expected to be up 0.2 percent from March. The government’s numbers indicate the month-over-month gain was actually only 0.1 percent.
The BLS reported an unemployment rate of 3.9 percent —
the lowest it’s been since it was 3.9 percent in December 2000.
Last month’s labor participation rate was 62.8 percent, weakening from 62.9 percent in March and in April 2017.
In just the mortgage industry, which is reported on a one-month delay, there were 337,200 non-bank jobs as of March. Staffing in the sector was down from a downwardly revised 339,500 the prior month.
Still, home-lending jobs have expanded from the downwardly revised 331,500 a year prior.
The March 2018 total was comprised of
244,500 “real estate credit” positions and 92,700 “mortgage and nonmortgage loan brokers.”
Based on an extrapolation of BLS data using origination market share, Mortgage Daily estimates that total mortgage industry jobs — including positions at financial institutions — came to 660,900 in March of this year.
Included in the estimated total were 262,200 mortgage jobs at banks, 61,500 residential positions at credit unions and the 337,200 non-bank jobs reported by the BLS.
