Rocket Mortgage cut additional jobs last week, eliminating about 50 positions.
A company official confirmed the reduction in force in an email to NMP Wednesday morning, but did not answer questions regarding the kinds of positions cut or whether those affected received a severance package.
Posts by affected employees on social media suggest that the affected positions include software engineers.
"As is common practice in all companies, Rocket regularly looks at the priorities of the business and what roles are needed to achieve those goals,” Aaron Emerson, a spokesperson for Rocket Mortgage, said in the emailed statement. “As a result of this process, we recently eliminated roughly 50 positions, representing less than one quarter of 1% of the roles in the company. "
He added that, "These decisions are never taken lightly, but are only made harder by the over-sensationalization of eager trade media.”
Last week’s cut was the second reduction in force for a Rocket-affiliated company in January. Earlier this month, Rocket Central eliminated about 20 marketing positions as part of a plan to restructure its marketing team.
The cuts come as Rocket and other major mortgage originators struggle with the downturn in the housing market caused by higher mortgage rates and low inventory.
In the third quarter of 2022, Rocket reported a second straight quarter in which its earnings fell more than 90% from a year earlier.
Rocket reported net income for the third quarter of $96 million, or 4 cents per diluted share, down 93% from $1.4 billion, or 54 cents per diluted share, in the same quarter last year. Net revenue was $1.3 billion, down 58.4% from $3.12 billion a year earlier.
As a result, Rocket was surpassed by United Wholesale Mortgage as the top overall mortgage originator by volume in the nation.
Rocket Companies is expected to announce its fourth-quarter and year-end earnings for 2022 sometime in late February, though an exact date has not yet been announced.
