Credit crunch hits mortgage sector

Uncertainty in the housing market has had an impact on recruitment, but the effect has been patchy, accordin
Uncertainty in the housing market has had an impact on recruitment, but the effect has been patchy, according to niche mortgage industry recruiters.

The news comes as the Bank of England announced that the number of new mortgage applications had decreased for the seventh consecutive month in December.

Matt Giles, managing consultant at Ben Arter Associates, told Recruiter the main impact had been in the sub-prime mortgage sector, where US companies such as Lehman Brothers had pulled out of the market, leading to job losses.

Giles said: "There's lots of candidates available, lots of admin staff, lots of operations staff, but there are no roles for them."

Giles said that certain towns such as Peterborough and Fareham had been badly affected, with a large number of people with specialist sub-prime mortgage skills now out of work. Giles said: "Six months ago they would have had no problem."

However, Giles said demand for mortgage brokers in the regular market was good. "It's quite busy; it's still reasonably buoyant," he said.

Richard Townsend, managing consultant at Independent Appointments, told Recruiter it was quite busy as long as the candidate had quality. "Clients will always see people with quality within the mortgage market, especially if that person brings his clients with him," he added.

However, some recruiters were finding it difficult. "Outside London and Bristol, people are struggling a lot. There are lots of administrators out there and recruiters are struggling to find jobs for them," he said.

Townsend said one noticeable development in the market had been a collapse in the trainee market.

"Small companies have made staff reductions which has resulted in a lot of talent coming into the market. Clients are saying, 'Why should we pay you for a trainee when there's quality experienced people in the market?'."

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