Grant to help mortgage workers

California plans to spend up to $5.6 million in federal grant money to retrain mortgage industry workers who lost their jobs in the wake of the sub-prime lending meltdown, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said 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 sub-prime 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% of the nationwide total, according to MortgageDaily.com.

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

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 skilled labor is in demand in such growth industries as healthcare and biotechnology.