Mortgage lenders dropped 6,500 full-time employees from their payrolls in December. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that employment in the mortgage banking and broker sector declined from 501,200 in November to 494,700 in December. The sharp decline in employment was due to a the slowing real estate market. Home sales were down 10 percent last year.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics can be found online at http://stats.bls.gov