Job losses spike as US mortgage firms feel downturn

Job losses spike as US mortgage firms feel downturn

08-22-2007, 17h43

WASHINGTON

A foreclosure sign sits in front of a home, March 2007 in Miami. Mortgage industry layoffs rose Wednesday and have jumped dramatically of late as surging home foreclosures and a credit squeeze force home lenders across America to scale back business.

Mortgage industry layoffs rose Wednesday and have jumped dramatically of late as surging home foreclosures and a credit squeeze force home lenders across America to scale back business.

Ailing mortgage companies have announced thousands of job cuts in recent weeks as the slump afflicting the industry has worsened and funding for fresh home loans has become harder to obtain.

Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co., based in California, became the latest mortgage firm Wednesday to unveil job losses, saying it was cutting 1,600 jobs due to the "ongoing turmoil" sweeping the industry.

The company specializes in subprime mortgages, or home loans granted to people with patchy credit. Subprime loans make up the majority of troubled property loans resulting in foreclosure.

John Challenger, the chief executive of Challenger, Gray Christmas, a private firm that monitors America’s job market, said over 11,000 layoffs have been announced since Friday, including employment losses at financial companies impacted by housing- and credit-related woes.

"What’s remarkable about these job cuts is just how quickly they’ve come. Many of these companies have just turned on a dime," Challenger said.

He compared the job losses roiling the mortgage industry to technology industry layoffs after the dot.com bubble burst in 2000, and other deep job cuts during the 1991-1992 recession.

Employment losses sweeping the mortgage industry have accelerated rapidly this month.

Arizona-based First Magnus Financial, a national mortgage lender, filed for bankruptcy protection late Tuesday after informing almost 6,000 staff they had lost their jobs.

Capital One Financial Corporation, a big bank and loan company based in northern Virginia near Washington, said Monday it was closing down a mortgage business it operates with the loss of 1,900 jobs.

American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., one of America’s biggest mortgage companies, announced around 6,000 job losses on August 3 before filing for bankruptcy protection three days later.

The company cited the "extraordinary disruptions" that have swamped the housing and mortgage markets in recent months.

On a smaller scale, Wall Street investment bank and broker Bear Stearns cut 240 positions in its mortgage business this month.

Other redundancies have also occurred at General Electric Co.’s mortgage firm, WMC Mortgage, and at HR Block Inc.’s mortgage business this year.

Countrywide Financial — America’s biggest mortgage firm — is also trimming its headcount.

The job cuts picked up this month after several Wall Street banks endured multibillion-dollar trading losses in mortgage-backed securities.

The trading losses triggered fears about the financial health of the multitrillion-dollar mortgage industry and led panicked investors to shun mortgage-backed securities.

The financial scare, which also sparked volatile moves on US and global stock markets, has led banks to tighten their lending standards making it harder for mortgage firms to access fresh funds.

Rising home foreclosures, which some estimates suggest have topped one million properties so far this year, have also added to the mortgage industry’s woes.

But Challenger said there could be a silver lining in the cloud for laid-off workers, noting that mortgage firm layoffs are spread across America and not hitting just one city or state.

"Unemployment has been steady at between 4.4 and 4.6 percent for almost a year now ... near full employment which will help to absorb these job losses," he said.

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