June Employment Flat for P&C Carriers, Reinsurers

NU Online News Service, Aug. 8, 3:01 p.m. EDT

Property and casualty carrier employment was basically flat based on June 2011 data from the U.S. Labor Dept.'s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Employment among P&C direct carriers rose by just 300 jobs, or 0.07 percent, from May 2011. Jobs in this sector of the industry are down 9,200 since June 2010.

As of June P&C industry employment is down 33,400, or 6.8 percent, since the recession began in December 2007, according to Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.).

There were no new jobs for U.S. reinsurance carriers in June.

According to Hartwig, P&C and reinsurer carrier employment is probably at the high point for the year at 457,700.

“Historically, carrier employment declines in the second half of the calendar year, somewhat more often for P&C carriers than for life or health carriers, or reinsurers,” Hartwig says.

Overall, employment in the insurance industry for June is up slightly from May by 4,600 jobs to 2,215,800.

Growth was led by 2,800 more jobs among agents and brokers. Data from the bureau does not separate life agents from P&C agents or agents from brokers. Agent and broker employment has increased by 9,300 from a low of 635,200 in February.

Claims adjusters employment rose 1,100 to 48,600 from May 2011.

I.I.I. points out that industry-specific data is one month behind the national data, so the report released by the BLS on Aug. 6 provides national data from July and industry data from June.