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Housing-Related Job Losses Grow

Back on Monday I wrote a post that discussed the importance of the U.S. housing sector to the overall economy. It is widely known that the sector contributed significantly to employment nationwide. As a matter of fact, according to Time on September 13, 46% of the new jobs created in the U.S. between January 2001 and May 2006 can be attributed to the housing boom. However, with the inevitable bust, job losses in housing-related industries are mounting. In a post from August 22, I noted that since the beginning of 2007 more than 40,000 mortgage industry workers and 20,000-plus construction industry workers had lost their jobs, according to Chicago-based global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. On September 10, Bloomberg reported that close to 100,000 mortgage company jobs will be eliminated in 2007. In addition, as many as 20% of U.S. real estate loan officers and mortgage brokers will be fired, said Josh Rosner, a managing director at investment research firm Graham Fisher & Company.

Just yesterday, Challenger, Gray & Christmas announced that about 37% of the job cuts in September were connected to the housing industry. Housing-related layoffs totaled 26,465 last month, compared to the overall monthly figure of 71,739. The Chicago-based consulting firm considers mortgage lenders, construction companies, and real estate firms as the industries that make up the housing-related sector. According to the Associated Press yesterday, mortgage lenders have accounted for nearly 70,000 layoffs from January to September. The news agency said that nearly 52,000 pink slips were issued in the past two months alone.