Weak US jobs scene lifts mortgage industry hiring
By Anupama Chandrasekaran
NEW YORK, March 22 (Reuters) - Even grim unemployment figures have a silver lining for some job seekers -- at least those who know how to process home mortgage applications.
When the U.S. Labor Department reported earlier this month that only a paltry 21,000 jobs were added in February despite the economic recovery, it sent interest rates sliding and triggered refinancing of loans by homeowners who missed out on last summer's record low rates.
Unable to keep up with the sudden flood, mortgage bankers are rushing to post help wanted ads. The same bankers had in many cases been firing workers when the level of refinancing slipped in the second half of last year.
"We have seen a surge in hiring in the last two weeks since (mortgage) rates have dipped a little bit and this is not just temporary hiring of employees but direct hires as well," said John Westermeier, managing director at mortgage staffing firm Contemporary Services Inc.
Last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association, a Washington trade group, said refinancing activity posted its biggest weekly increase in a little more than a year for the week ending March 12 and reached its highest level in nearly eight months, rising 39.7 percent to 4,983.7 from 3,567.6.
Contemporary Services said job ads from mortgage banking companies have more than doubled to about 120 to 150 postings on its site last week. Before the drop in mortgage rates in early March, it was receiving only 20 to 50 job postings from mortgage banking firms.
The world's largest staffing firm Adecco SA (ADEN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research) also said it is getting three times the requests it initially expected for mortgage-related positions in the southeastern United States, where some of the call centers of financial firms are located.
Other real estate employment Web sites such as www.Realestatebestjobs.com are gearing up for a possible pickup in job postings for loan processors and underwriters.
"I would expect to see a surge in job postings and recruiting in those areas within the next month," said Carolynn Monaco, president of www.Realestatebestjobs.com.
Demand for staffing in the mortgage banking business had been down since last July, according to U.S. government data, as the boom in mortgage refinancing was losing steam with the rise of benchmark interest rates, such as the yield on the 10-year treasury note, in the second-half of last year.
But with the jobs picture not improving as quickly as previously expected, those yields have fallen again and some analysts now do not expect the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise key interest rates until 2005.
Adecco executives expect the boom in demand for staff from mortgage banking companies to last at least till the end of summer.
"With the refinancing boom having ended in the third-quarter of last year there were some layoffs and now many of the same people are being rehired to meet the strong demand," said Adecco spokeswoman Victoria Mitchell.
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