Countrywide Financial Corp. plans to add more than 2,000 workers to its sales force this year even as a slowdown in the housing market forces rivals to cut staff.

Angelo Mozilo, the Calabasas-based lender’s chief executive, said at an investor’s conference that the company will add the sales people during 2007 and also will open 100 retail branches.

This news comes less than a week after the nation’s largest mortgage lender said its overall lending for the month of April increased 11 percent to more than $40 billion, while subprime lending had declined 50 percent.

Shares in Countrywide were down 87 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $40.21 in afternoon trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.