"Financial firms cannot cut their payrolls fast enough, especially in the mortgage lending sector," said John Challenger, chief executive of global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which tracks public announcements of layoffs.

"However, the numbers aren't as bad as what they might have been, and we're not seeing heavy downsizing in other areas of the economy," Challenger said.

The firm said there were 27,169 jobs lost in September at mortgage lenders, construction companies and real estate firms, compared with 1,557 job cuts a year earlier. The report said about 21,000 of those jobs were lost at mortgage and subprime lending institutions.

The outplacement company collects job cut announcements from companies and news reports.

So far this year, the finance industry has cut 129,927 jobs. About 54 percent, or 69,664, were at mortgage and subprime lending institutions, compared with 12,874 a year ago. In 2006, there were 50,327 finance-related job cuts.

Investment banks across the industry have been axing mortgage employees. Most recently, Morgan Stanley said it's laying off about 600 employees in its residential home mortgage business. Other firms -- such as Credit Suisse Group, HSBC Holdings PLC, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., UBS AG and Merrill Lynch & Co. -- have also cut mortgage-related jobs this year. Deutsche Bank AG signaled the bank is putting hiring on hold because of market conditions, and online broker E-Trade Financial Corp. announced plans to close its direct mortgage lending business.

In September, the pace of job cuts at mortgage lenders, construction companies and real estate firms slowed from August, when 35,752 jobs were lost. The total number of job cuts by U.S. corporations fell 9.7 percent in September to 71,739, from the six-month high of 79,459 in August. A year ago, there were 100,315 job cuts in September.

While it's likely the financial sector will see more layoffs, the question remains whether they will be confined to mortgage-related operations.

"Even if the worst of the crisis is over, as some are saying, we could continue to see heavy job cuts in the financial sector through the end of the year," Challenger said.

So far this year, sectors such as insurance, consumer products and industrial goods made more than 4,000 layoffs related to the housing slump, the survey said. Challenger said the upcoming holiday season will show if the mortgage and housing crisis has spread to other areas.