U.S. insurance companies total unemployment surged to its highest rate since 1983, with agent and broker positions down 1.7 percent to 658,500, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

February insurance payrolls fell to $2.282 million from $2.288 million in January–1,000 fewer positions than the 2.289 million previously reported. The number of insurance jobs has contracted in 6 of the past 7 months. Year-over-year, insurance payrolls fell 1.1 percent from the 2.307 million jobs in February 2008, compared with a 3.0 percent decline for nonfarm payrolls. The financial services sector was down 44,000 jobs from January to February, and the sector has shed 297,000 jobs over the past year, a 3.1 percent drop. Health insurer payrolls grew the most over the past year, up 4.5 percent from January 2008 to 457,300. Payrolls for reinsurers rose 2.5 percent to 29,100, while life insurers were up 0.3 percent to 354,700 and those in the "other" segment were up 0.8 percent to 53,200. Every other segment of the industry saw job losses, with the most severe cuts in the title insurance segment. Concurrently, average weekly earnings for the industry's nonsupervisory positions rose 5.7 percent from January 2008 to January 2009, from $828.07 to $875.45, with wages rising in all but one of the eight industry categories. Wages for third-party administrators fell 3.2 percent to $745.38 a week. Making the biggest gains in earnings were life insurance employees, up 9.7 percent to $964.03. Also gaining were employees of health insurers, up 9.0 percent to $943.24; reinsurers, up 6.1 percent to $796.32; title insurers, up 5.1 percent to $800.36; property-casualty insurers, up 4.3 percent to $987.62; and agents and brokers, up 3.2 percent to $745.38.