After a surprisingly strong February in terms of job growth, March saw numbers slow a bit, but it still marked the 73rdconsecutive month of gains. After February’s 245,000 jobs, March saw the addition of 25,000 jobs, equaling a 2 percent year-over-year growth, Trulia reports. Additionally, wages showed a strong increase with year-over-year growth of 2.3 percent.
A maturing economic cycle is likely to blame for the January to March 2016 job gains' inability to keep up with the year-over-year gains seen at this time in 2015.
While real estate services are experiencing job growth that is slightly higher than the pace of national job growth (2.3 percent year-over-year as opposed to 2 percent), the number of existing home sales per employee is dropping. In January this number was at 3.5 sales per employee, but in February it dropped to 3.3 sales per employee.
Despite recent volatility, the sales per employee number of 3.3 sales per employee per month are hovering around post-recession highs, yet they are still well below the pre-recession highs of approximately 5 sales per employee per month.
This drop in the number of sales per employee is due to a combination of closing-delays from new lending regulations and the decrease in existing inventory over the past few years as builders are still unable to expand inventory and keep up with demand.
