Job losses in the housing sector have started to pick up dramatically, reported Investor’s Business Daily. According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, job cuts in the real estate, construction and mortgage industries surged 346 percent to 21,245 in the first quarter of 2006. The figures don’t include the 3,200 jobs New Century Financial Corp. announced it would cut when it filed for bankruptcy this week.

As building permits have fallen 32 percent from their peak in late 2005, job cuts have lagged until now. The construction industry shed 62,000 jobs in February after a housing boom added an average of 36,320 workers each month from March 2004 to April 2006. Real estate agents have not been hard hit yet; the National Association of Realtors had more than 1.3 million members as of February compared with fewer than 800,000 in 2002.

In related news, the Labor Department reported today that the number of newly laid-off workers who signed up for unemployment benefits rose by 11,000 to 321,000 for the week ended March 31 after new claims fell by 8,000 in the prior week. The four-week moving average for new claims fell by 1,500 to 315,750 last week, its lowest level since early February, and the number of people continuing to collect unemployment benefits dropped by 25,000 to 2.49 million for the week ended March 24.

According to the Associated Press, the report suggests that the labor market is holding steady against strains caused by weakness in the housing market.