DALLAS, July 25, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Quarterly hirings in the Motor City helped Michigan secure the biggest gains in mortgage employment, while the nation's biggest home lender was behind the state with the most mortgage job losses.
As of March 31 of this year, there were an estimated 624,800 people who were employed in the mortgage industry.
The total is based on a Mortgage Daily analysis of origination market share data and data reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Jobs in real estate finance were trimmed from year-end 2015, when an estimated 626,500 employees held jobs at mortgage firms.
But headcount expanded from the end of the first quarter of last year, when the estimated total was an upwardly revised 594,000.
More recently, the number of positions at mortgage employers totaled an estimated 631,100 as of May 2016.
The first-quarter 2016 total reflected an estimated 268,400 mortgage jobs at banks, 57,900 home-lending employees at credit unions and 298,500 positions at non-bank mortgage firms.
Estimated Mortgage Staffing by Quarter
| Type | Q1 2016 | Q4 2015 | Q1 2015 | |||
| Banks | 268,400 | 261,800 | 261,200 | |||
| Credit Unions | 57,900 | 63,700 | 47,000 | |||
| Non-Banks | 298,500 | 301,000 | 285,800 | |||
| Total | 624,800 | 626,500 | 594,000 | |||
Mortgage Daily tracked 3,816 layoffs as part of its First Quarter 2016 Mortgage Employment Index, while 3,978 hirings were tracked for the same period.
The job activity was collected through public company filings, announcements and statements from lenders, and filings made with state employment agencies as required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
There were 1,029 more hirings than layoffs tracked in Michigan, giving it the biggest mortgage job gains of any state.
Activity in Michigan was driven by Quicken Loans Inc., which is headquartered in Detroit.
Biggest Gains by State Q1 2016
| State | Net | |
| Michigan | +1,029 | |
| South Carolina | +350 | |
| Rhode Island | +35 | |
| Arizona | +25 | |
| Utah | +25 | |
In North Carolina, mortgage layoffs exceeded mortgage hirings by 551, the biggest first-quarter loss of any state.
Wells Fargo & Co., which picked up significant operations in Charlotte with its 2008 acquisition of Wachovia Corp., was behind many of the job losses in North Carolina.
Biggest Losses by State Q1 2016
| State | Net | |
| North Carolina | -551 | |
| Colorado | -415 | |
| California | -373 | |
| Pennsylvania | -76 | |
| Indiana | -13 | |
Quicken Loans, the nation's third-biggest home lender, had 2,000 more hirings than it did layoffs -- the best record of any U.S. company.
Biggest Gains by Company Q1 2016
| Company | Net | |
| Quicken Loans | +2,000 | |
| Movement Mortgage LLC | +358 | |
| Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. | +277 | |
| loanDepot LLC | +200 | |
| ResMac Inc. | +133 | |
Wells Fargo, the largest mortgage originator and mortgage servicer in the country, had the biggest quarterly loss of mortgage jobs of any firm tracked: 743.
Biggest Losses by Company Q1 2016
| Company | Net | |
| Wells Fargo | -743 | |
| Ocwen Financial Corp. | -634 | |
| W.J. Bradley Mortgage Capital LLC | -500 | |
| Bank of America Corp. | -400 | |
| Home Retention Services Inc. | -255 | |
Full Q1 2016 report is available to subscribers:
www.MortgageDaily.com/stories/MortgageEmploymentIndex072516.asp?spcode=pr
Historical Mortgage Employment Index data is at:
http://www.mortgagedaily.com/MortgageEmploymentIndex.asp?spcode=pr
Mortgage employment news:
http://www.mortgagedaily.com/MortgageEmployment.asp?spcode=pr
About Mortgage Daily
Founded in 1998 by 20-year mortgage industry veteran Sam Garcia, Mortgage Daily is a leading online source of mortgage news and mortgage statistics. Mortgage Daily also publishes the Mortgage Market Index and a ranking of the biggest lenders. Visit Mortgage Daily at www.MortgageDaily.com.