US insurance industry extends hiring spree into 2024, adds 4800 jobs
The broad US insurance industry may have continued its hiring streak into the New Year, adding 4800 jobs in January, the third consecutive month above the 4000 mark, a monthly dataset from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicated.
The prior month’s gain, revised down to 4100 from an initial read of 4500, came despite a year-end slaughter amongst direct P&C carriers that more than wiped out the gains that had been noted year-to-date.
Employment in P&C carriers, well above pre-pandemic levels but stagnant since late 2022, fell by 2000 or 0.3% in December, the largest monthly decline since periods late 2020 / early 2021 to put the segment down 1300 jobs for the year.
Life, health and medical insurers, in turn, struggling in their post-pandemic job recovery for the last half of 2023, ended the year on their best month in four months, adding 1100 jobs and bringing the 2023 tally to a 1000 net job gain.
Agencies and brokerages covered the gap from primary insurance carriers once again with another month of unrelenting hiring to end the year, aided also by a sudden hiring spree at claims adjusters.
Brokerages and agencies added a net 2700 job in December to bring the 2023 net gain to an eye-opening 24,600 jobs, including 10,300 in the fourth quarter alone. Job gains among brokerages and agencies has been almost uninterrupted since the first days of the pandemic. Sector employment is up 129,000 since end-2019.
Employment for direct title insurers rebounded to end a difficult second half of the year in which 2200 jobs disappeared net, a 2.4% decline over the six month period and 2.8% for the year.
Reinsurers ended the year with a 3.3% annual increase in headcount to 31,300 after a palpable hiring bout in the summer months.
For the broader US economy, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 353,000 in January, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.7%, the BLS said. Job gains were said to have occurred in professional and business services, health care, retail trade, and social assistance. Employment declined in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction industry.
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