Though the labor market's overall resilience continues to puzzle experts, the plight of rising interest rates, which are spurring a historic plunge in home sales, could soon lead to a rash of harsher job cuts across the housing sector, which, alongside the technology industry, has already seen firms lay off thousands of workers in recent months, Forbes reported. Despite a stronger-than-expected jobs report on Friday, Pantheon Macro chief economist Ian Shepherdson says the resilience “likely will change over the next couple months,” as the impact of rising rates ripples across the economy, with rate-sensitive sectors like housing among those expected to be hardest hit. "It’s a certainty that layoffs soon will be rising across the entire housing ecosystem," says Shepherdson, warning the struggles will be akin to those illustrated by well-publicized tech layoffs, which hit giants Stripe and Twitter last week and could continue this week with Facebook parent Meta. It remains vastly unclear just how many jobs could be on the line, but already a rash of firms in the housing sector have started implementing mega-size layoffs, with home selling platform Opendoor last week saying it was slashing about 18% of its workforce, some 550 workers, as the company navigates “ one of the most challenging real estate markets in 40 years.” Lenders have also been hit hard: This summer mortgage giant LoanDepot announced thousands of job cuts, and Wells Fargo is reportedly looking to cut some 2,000 loan officers as mortgage volume plummets 90% year over year.
