"Profitability in workers' compensation is heading downhill rather rapidly," according to Robert P. Hartwig, Ph.D., CPCU, president and economist of the Insurance Information Institute. "We are earning about 40-50 percent less than we were pre-crisis."

Hartwig and his fellow panelists — Gary Hinson, vice president of ACE USA Claims, and Jeff Eddinger, FCAS, MAAA, practice leader and senior actuary for NCCI Holdings, Inc. — reported on the health of the workers' compensation market at the Florida Workers' Compensation Institute's annual Workers' Compensation Educational Conference on Tuesday at a session entitled, "Annual Checkup: What Is the State of the Workers' Compensation Market?" The discussion was moderated by Sam Friedman, group editor-in-chief of National Underwriter, P&C.

Hartwig noted that the demand for commercial insurance has dropped as unemployment has risen. "Nationwide, we lost about 8.4 million jobs from December 2007 through December 2009," he said. "The recession caused the largest impact on workers' compensation exposure in 60 years."