BOA leads way in mortgage job cuts

The industry recorded nearly 9,000 job cuts in the first quarter. That's far below Q4's 22,000, but still more than 207% higher than a year ago.

There’s good news and bad news when it comes to mortgage industry jobs. The bad news is that the industry recorded 8,991 layoffs in the first quarter. The good news is that’s nowhere near the six-year high of 22,000 job cuts the industry saw in the fourth quarter of last year.

Layoffs in the first quarter dropped by 59% from the fourth quarter of 2013, according to a Staffing Industry Analysts report. However, layoffs still exceeded hires by 8,143, and were up 207% from the first quarter of last year.

Bank of America saw the most job cuts at 2,974, followed by JPMorgan Chase (1,500), Wells Fargo (1,267), Ocwen (844) and Citigroup (830). On the other hand, PennyMac Loan Services, Stonegate Mortgage and Freedom Mortgage all increased their staffing by more than 100 employees.

States with the greatest number of mortgage job losses were led by California at 1,055, followed by Michigan (300), South Carolina (288), Missouri (286) and Iowa (238).