Despite growth in mortgage revenues at banks nationwide, industry employment continued to move down in the second quarter as banks cut staff, according to a report from Mortgage Daily [1].
Just less than 19,000 tracked jobs were cut in April, May, and June, according to Mortgage Daily, with more than 20,000 job losses offsetting about 1,600 gains. The net loss is a major jump from the 8,100 reported losses in the first quarter and the nearly 3,000 reported a year ago.
All of the reported cuts in the second quarter happened at banks, which lost approximately 28,600 jobs from the first quarter to the second. With defaults on the mend and new lending activity looking anemic, banks have made major reductions in both servicing and origination staff in the last year.
Meanwhile, employment at credit unions was more stable, with mortgage jobs rising to around 49,200. Mortgage employment at non-banks also edged up, climbing to 282,900.
In a separate analysis of market share data for banks and other lenders, Mortgage Daily estimated total industry employment as of the end of June was 669,500, down from a revised 692,700 in the first quarter and roughly 971,000 last year.
Job losses were worst in North Carolina, where Bank of America makes its home. In June alone, the megabank laid off 540 workers in its Charlotte-based legacy assets and servicing business, which worked in delinquent loans.
It was JPMorgan Chase, however, that made the biggest cuts, losing 11,500 jobs to BofA's 3,900. Earlier this year, the biggest U.S. bank by assets announced plans to drop nearly 8,000 jobs this year in consumer and community banking. Those layoffs are to be partly offset by 3,000 additional jobs in compliance and other areas.