Among publicly traded mortgage shops, Lending Tree CEO Doug Lebda took home the most bacon last year: $42.3 million in total compensation. But what do CEOs at private firms earn? The answer is not simple.

Originations are strong in many markets but hiring by mortgage banking firms is not particularly robust. Meanwhile, some executives wonder privately whether the rate rally is getting long in the tooth.

The nonbank plans to hire nearly 1,400 employees by the end of the year. Several other lenders are also hiring as interest rates remain relatively low.

The company is offering buyout packages to selected employees, a fact con-firmed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Is Freddie Mac going to do the same? Hard to say. The company didn’t respond to a media inquiry.

Mortgage banking firms trimmed 1,100 posi-tions during January, ending the month with 239,900 full-timers on their payrolls, according to figures compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Loan brokers, on the other hand, added 500 positions, bringing employment in the sector to 86,300.

Impac Mortgage Holdings is putting a strong emphasis on originating non-qualified mortgages as the product offers attractive margins. But the shift also has prompted large layoffs and employee turnover as non-QM volume hasn’t completely replaced production of conforming mortgages.

Although employment in the mortgage industry has been fairly robust the past few years, it’s been a dicey proposition for real estate appraisers. According to figures compiled by the Appraisal Institute, a national trade group that represents the sector, there were 82,208 active license holders at last count, down 8.1% from four years earlier.

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.