A survey of commercial insurance agents in California finds most believe their clients will pay more for workers' compensation coverage this year.

The study was conducted by Mercury Messages for Self Insured Solutions (SIS), a workers' comp insurance administrator which surveyed 10,000 business insurance agents in the state for their views.

More than three quarters of those responding said they believe their clients will pay more for their workers' compensation coverage, with just over half, 52 percent, saying they expect the increase to occur within the next six months.

The SIS study also found that less than half of those polled believe the state's economy will improve for businesses in 2008.

Roughly two thirds of those responding to the survey, 64 percent, said they believe that more expensive costs for workers' comp will be a problem for their clients this year, but three quarters of those agents who expect problems believe that a solution can be found.

Seventy-two percent of those who responded said they believed that the state government has become a cause of increases, and 68 percent said they believe that the private sector will develop the solution to the issue.

"This three-part study has given us a significant - and useful - peek into the future of California's economy as well as a quick head's up about trends in the workers' comp market and the growing shortage of skilled labor faced by California's industries," said Joe Wheeler, SIS vice president.

He said the company wanted to know what California's business insurance agents see for 2008 - "and the results were more than a little startling."

According to the study, only 34 percent of those who responded to the survey believed that California's business economy will improve this year, while only 26 percent said they expect to see improvement in the overall economy.

Only 30 percent of respondents thought things would improve for their clients, but a greater number, 46 percent, thought their own business would get stronger in 2008.

"This discrepancy reflects a common result of market research," said Daryl Toor, chief executive officer of Mercury Messages. "Surveyed individuals frequently see themselves doing significantly better - or significantly worse - than the economy as a whole."

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