The nation’s 6th-largest provider of residential retail mortgages is laying off hundreds of employees as higher mortgage rates discourage refinancing
The nation’s 6th-largest provider of residential retail mortgages is laying off hundreds of employees in Florida and New Jersey, joining a growing list of lenders who have cut jobs as higher mortgage rates discourage refinancing.
PHH Corp. has said it will lay off 365 people in its Jacksonville, Fla., office by December, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal. It was not immediately announced how many employees would get the ax at the company’s Mount Laurel, N.J., headquarters. Most of the affected employees work in the company’s mortgage origination department.
PHH spokesman Dico Akseraylian told the Journal that the layoffs come as the result of rising interest rates and a lower demand for refinancing. He said affected workers would receive 60 days’ pay in lieu of notice.
Layoffs have become ubiquitous among large mortgage lenders in recent months as higher rates slowed refinancing to a trickle. Last month, Citigroup announced the layoffs of about 1,000 employees in its mortgage division. Wells Fargo & Co., the nation’s largest mortgage lender, has eliminated more than 4,000 mortgage jobs over the last few months. Bank of America has cut about 2,100, and JPMorgan has announced plans to eliminate about 19,000 positions – about 15,000 in its mortgage unit – over the next two years.
