(22 August 2007 – USA) The sub-prime mortgage blow out in the United States has led to huge job losses in the financial services industry, according to consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.The firm estimates that the financial services industry has witnessed some 88,000 job losses so far this year, 75 percent more than the 50,327 recorded for all of 2006.
About a quarter of the job losses occurred in August.
More than 35,000 of these job losses were linked to problems in the housing market.
The real estate and construction industries lost more than 21,000 jobs, twice the number that occurred in 2006.