Insurance Job Losses Continue As Overall Employment Gains

According to the latest employment report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. insurance industry lost 1,700 jobs in March, continuing a long-term decline as the overall economy gained 216,000 jobs during the month. On a year-to-year basis, industry employment, now standing at 2.21 million jobs, is down 1.7% since March 2010.

Source: Source: A.M. Best | Published on April 5, 2011

Industry job losses in February, previously determined to be 3,600 jobs, were revised to 5,000.

Overall, the bureau showed a gain of 216,000 jobs in March, with a downtick in the unemployment rate to 8.8% from 8.9%. Hiring in professional and businesses services accounted for 78,000 jobs.

Total insurance industry payrolls are reported each month on a seasonably adjusted basis, along with the current month's nonfarm payrolls. Separately, data by industry segment -- broken out by various insurance carrier and noncarrier categories -- are available only on an unadjusted basis for the prior month.

Based on just-released February 2011 data, all industry sectors but reinsurance lost jobs on a year-to-year comparison: life insurance employment, down 0.53% to 372,300; health and medical insurance, down 4.2% to 421,200; property/casualty, down 1.8% to 458,800; title insurance, down 3.9% to 65,800; agents and brokers, down 0.72% to 635,300; claims adjustment, down 2.1% to 47,700; and third-party administration, down 1.9% to 128,600. The number of reinsurance jobs climbed 1.9% to 27,000.

All insurance sectors other than title insurance continued to see increases in weekly wages: life insurance, $1022.40, up 1.7%; health and medical insurance, $1007.62, up 5.4%; property/casualty, $1046.80, up 4.2%; reinsurance, $963.79, up 5.0%; agents and brokers, $795.44, up 5.0%; claims adjustment, $952.88, up 5.2%; and third-party administration, $791.57, up 3.8%. Title insurance wages fell to $867.35, down 5.7%.