More job cuts in housing-related businesses

Forget about steady job growth, several mortgage lenders have announced further staff cuts, and this is no small news. Weaker employment might further curb consumer spending, resulting in a weaker economy altogether.

Lehman Brothers has eliminated 850 positions, as it downsizes in response to tough market conditions. It is closing its Korean mortgage business and renaming all its residential mortgage origination and servicing businesses “Lehman Mortgage Capital”. Countrywide is taking another round of lay offs, eliminating some 900 employees. The last time Countrywide announced job cuts was less than a month ago. Cleveland-based National City said it will lay off 1,300 employees and stop issuing non-conforming loans that can’t be sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

A study by Challenger, Gray & Christmas concluded that the 85% surge in layoffs last month was primarily caused by lenders scaling back. Not a very encouraging statistic. In this relation, MarketWatch published a very interesting article about the Fed’s opinion on the current economic conditions. And I thought the guys at the NAR were too optimistic.