California to retrain laid-off mortgage workers

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 20 (Reuters) - California plans to spend up to $5.6 million in grant money from the U.S. government to retrain mortgage industry workers who lost their jobs in the wake of the subprime lending meltdown, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Wednesday.

The state's initiative will focus on thousands of former employees of mortgage lenders in California, home to many of the big institutions that offered subprime mortgages to borrowers with patchy credit histories.

California was hit hardest by last year's job cuts by mortgage lenders, with a net loss of 15,933 mortgage jobs, or 18.5 percent of the nationwide total, according to MortgageDaily.com.

Mortgage lenders including Countrywide Financial Corp CFC.N and New Century Financial Corp NEWCQ.PK, both based in Southern California, slashed a total of 86,071 jobs last year, according to MortgageDaily.com.

New Century is now defunct, having liquidated many assets since filing for bankruptcy protection in April.

"We applied for this grant because we want to help displaced workers transition to new jobs and the money will go to the counties with the greatest need," Schwarzenegger said.

Mortgage lenders in California have slashed a variety of employees from payrolls, from mortgage bankers to clerical and administrative staff.

State Labor and Workforce Development Agency Secretary Victoria Bradshaw said they have skills in demand in growing industries such as health care and biotechnology.

California, where high home prices pushed many to take out mortgages they could not afford, had the fourth-highest highest rate of foreclosure in the nation in 2007, according to real estate data company RealtyTrac. (Editing by Leslie Adler)