Mortgage industry job cuts surpass 38,000

Companies stop 'on a dime'; 24,000 positions eliminated so far this month

"CHARLOTTE, N.C - At the North Carolina offices of mortgage lender HomeBanc Corp., Archie Clark is the only employee left. In a few days, he’ll be gone, too.

“It’s pretty much a ghost town over there,” Clark said. “Somebody went in and took the furniture from the lobby. I don’t know who did that. I put some of the other stuff in the back and locked it up.”

When Clark finishes helping movers from the company’s Atlanta headquarters collect computers and other property, he’ll join the more than 24,000 workers nationwide who have lost jobs in the financial services industry since the beginning of the month — with more than half coming since last Friday. With few exceptions, the cuts are the direct result of woes in the nation’s housing market.

More layoffs are announced daily. On Wednesday, Lehman Brothers Holdings closed its “subprime” mortgage business, laying off 1,200 workers at 23 offices; Scottsdale, Ariz.-based 1st National Bank Holding Co. closed its wholesale mortgage unit and cut 541 jobs, and Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. added 1,600 positions to the heap. The night before, banking giant HSBC said it would close a main financing office and cut 600 jobs..."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20396081/

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