Mortgage jobs reach record highs

Adding 6,200 full-time employees to their payrolls, mortgage industry employment reached a record high in October, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The BLS employment report indicates that jobs in the mortgage banking/broker sector rose from 459,300 in September to 465,500 in October. (NOTE: November employment data for the mortgage sector will be released Jan. 7.)

The record employment numbers come at a crucial time for the mortgage industry as applications have been on a roller coaster ride of ups and downs over the past two months. In October, the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Market Composite Index of mortgage applications reported variations ranging from a 1 percent (seasonally adjusted) increase in volume during the first week of October to a 9 percent fall the following week. The week of October 20 saw a 7.9 percent increase only to fall 0.8 percent the following week.

BLS economists anticipate job growth in the mortgage-related industries to continue.