When originations go south, as they have the past year or so, mortgage bankers and brokers start trimming the herd.

Changes to the Department of Labor’s overtime rule are anxiously anticipated as they may finally answer, among other things, whether mortgage loan officers are excluded from overtime pay.

The mortgage industry has more capacity than necessary, which is hurting profitability, according to industry analysts.

Mortgage banking firms employed 245,800 full-timers as of the end of November, the worst reading in 10 months, according to figures compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Mortgage brokerage firms — listed separately in the BLS tracking system — employed 89,100 workers, a loss of 900 positions from October. A year ago, the broker segment had 92,000 full-timers. The seasonally adjusted figures, which trail the national employment numbers by a month, portend uneasiness ahead for ...