US insurance industry picks up the hiring pace Q2, adds 11,000 jobs net

Hiring in the broad US insurance industry has picked up pace in the second quarter, with P&C carriers joining a jobs rally that had been funded excessively by brokerages and agencies to date. 

The broad industry may have added 4800 jobs in May on top of the 6200 revised figure now listed for April. That renders a net gain more than twice that seen in the entire first quarter, and 1.5x that seen in Q4. 

The detailed data for April showed direct carriers picking up the baton with their highest aggregate monthly gain in two years just as the long-term stalwart growth engine of brokerages and agencies appeared to have stalled. 

Amongst carriers, direct P&C insurers did the heavy lifting. A net gain of 4600 jobs was the best monthly result since January 2022 when the sub-sector was still in the heady days of its post-pandemic jobs recovery. 

The resulting jobs count at 592,000 is fractionally above the range at which the sector eventually stabilised and the highest reading in twenty years. 

Life, health and medical insurance carriers, which have only recovered just over a third of the jobs lost during the pandemic, added a more modest 2100 jobs in April, the third-best result over the past year. 

Brokerages and agencies, which never suffered more than a month's worth of pandemic job losses, added a mere 700 jobs in April. But that still set yet another all-time record over a decade of nearly continuous all-time records. 

For the broader US economy, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 272,000 in May and the unemployment rate held edged up fractionally to 4.0%, the BLS said. Job gains were said to have occurred in health care, government, leisure and hospitality; and professional, scientific, and technical services.

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