National Trends ~ Housing cool-down threatens jobs

WASHINGTON - The cooling U.S. housing market could mean “a whole lot” of job cuts as construction companies, mortgage brokers, real estate agencies and landscapers start laying off legions of workers, economists say.

“By next year, it should stabilize, but for now, yes, jobs are going to be lost,” said Zoltan Pozsar, an economist with Moody’s Economist.com Inc.

Between early 2003 and March 2006, the housing boom created about 1.2 million jobs throughout the industry, he said. But since spring, he said, employers not only have stopped hiring, they have slashed about 25,000 jobs.

David Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, agrees job losses will spread.

“We’ve had very strong growth going back several years,” Seiders said. “It topped out in March of this year and now employment is off a bit. We expect for it to continue to decline through the end of the year.”

The U.S. Commerce Department says the housing industry’s drop-off is dramatic, with new single-family home sales down 21.6 percent this July compared to a year ago.

Source: Marilyn Geewax, Cox News Service