NU Online News Service, Oct. 12, 12:36 p.m.EDT

There were 2,100 fewer jobs in the insurance industry for themonth of August, with property and casualty insurance carriers,agents and brokers taking the biggest hit of the nine industrysegments.

In a report on data released by the U.S. Labor Department'sBureau of Labor Statistics, Robert P. Hartwig, president and chiefeconomist for the Insurance Information Institute in New York notesthat employment in insurance was generally up in August.

The data cover P&C and life and health segments of theindustry.

While there were fewer jobs overall, Hartwig says that contraryto “historical trends, in terms of direction (if not numbers),employment in insurance in August 2011 was generally up.”

He notes that employment for all types of carriers, exceptP&C, rose. Employment in U.S. reinsurance rose the sharpest inAugust, up 500 jobs or close to 2 percent for a total of27,800.

P&C insurance jobs declined by 0.4 percent, or total of1,800 jobs, down to 453,800.

Agent and broker jobs declined by 0.4 percent, or 2,500 jobs, toa total of 641,300. However, the Bureau of Labor data do notseparate life agents from P&C agents or agents frombrokers.

“Based on historical trends, we should not expect employmentgrowth in August,” Hartwig says.

Hartwig notes that employment in August versus July fell in 18of the 21 years going from 1990 to 2010. In two of those yearsemployment was unchanged.

The data are preliminary and subject to some change, but Hartwigsays that while there may be revisions, they are usually small.

In a slide presentation, Hartwig notes that since the recessionbegan in December 2007, employment in the P&C insuranceindustry has fallen close to 8 percent, or 37,300 jobs. Agents andbrokers have seen their numbers cut close to 6 percent, or 38,300jobs, over the same period.