According to statistics released Dec. 4 by U.S. LaborDepartment's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), for the month ofOctober 2015, virtually every subsector of insurance industryemployment was up, year over year, with many subsectors showingsignificant increases.

Compiled by the New York City-based Insurance InformationInstitute (I.I.I.), the numbers show that property and casualty(P&C) carrier employment rose by 600 (+0.1%) for the 12 monthsending in October 2015, to 522,800. Although P&C carrieremployment had been rising for the past 18 months, it slippedduring May through September 2015. It is now nearly back to whereit was in October 2014, says I.I.I.

Agents and brokers appear to be doing well, too. According tothe BLS numbers, the agent/broker segment gained 23,600 jobs inOctober 2015 vs. October 2014 (up 3.3%) to 745,700 — with 9,600 newhires in the month of October 2015 alone.

“This is by far the largest one-month gain in this segment inthe last 25 years (the next highest was 6,200 in June 2000),” saidSteven Weisbart, CLU, senior vice president and chief economist atI.I.I.

Related: Insurance industry added more jobs inSeptember

After losing jobs in the Great Recession (from 682,100 in thefirst month of the recession, December 2007, to 652,900 in thefirst month of recovery (July 2009) and on to a trough of 638,200in September 2010, the segment has been fairly steadily gainingjobs and passed the pre-recession peak of 684,500 reached in July2007, Weisbart noted. “From the recent trough through October 2015,this segment has gained 107,500 jobs.”

(Source: Insurance InformationInstitute)

Other segments also show gains

The data shows that employment by life/annuity carriers rose inOctober 2015 vs. October 2014 (up 17,800, or 5.1%) to 366,700.

The health carrier segment has been gaining jobs quite steadilyfor decades, Weisbart pointed out. In October 2015 vs. October2014, it rose 5.1% (up 25,300) to 525,500. He attributes at leastsome of the growth to “the flood of health insurance applications,purchases, and claims attributable to the Affordable Care Act[ACA], and some to population growth, but it is important toacknowledge that this rate of growth has been characteristic ofthis sector for decades — long before the ACA was proposed.”

Related: Good news: Insurance industry employment on therise

The smaller industry segments also showed growth in October2015. Reinsurance carrier employment in the United States rose 3.2%to 26,000 when compared with October 2014. Third-partyadministrators gained 2,100 jobs (+1.2%), bringing the October 2015total to 176,300. Weisbart observed that this category has grownquite steadily for more than two decades, though not as fast asemployment at medical expense insurers.

Claims adjusters were the only group to lose jobs in October2015, according to BLS. Employment at independent claims-adjustingfirms fell by 1,900 when compared with October 2015 (-3.6 %),bringing their total numbers down to 50,400.

Stay tuned to see what the numbers will show in the newyear.

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