Property and Casualty carriers added 900 jobs in March — a month that saw employment shrink in most other sectors of the insurance industry, according to an analysis of the latest figures from the U.S. Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
In his review of the BLS figures, Insurance Information Institute President Robert Hartwig says, "P&C carrier employment has generally risen every month since February 2012 — the lone exception: -400 in August 2012 — and is now 7,100 above the February 2012 level."
However, longer term, Hartwig notes that the picture is more of a mixed bag. "For example," he says in his analysis, "for the 12 months from March 2010 through February 2011, P&C carrier employment rose steadily by a cumulative 5,900. In contrast, for the 12 months preceding this period P&C carrier employment dropped by 28,600 and for the 12 months following it employment also fell, this time by 19,400."
He says employment in this subsector is about where it was in late spring 1993.
Third-party administration (up by 1,400 jobs) and "all other insurance-related activities (up by 200 jobs) were the only other subsectors in March to show employment gains compared to February.
Agents and brokers shed 500 jobs, which Hartwig says is "somewhat unusual." He explains, "[I]n the 24 Februarys starting in 1990, for example, agent/broker employment grew 15 times, was flat three times and fell six times. Agent/broker employment, currently 661,400, had been generally rising from August 2010, when it was 637,700, but has backed off from a peak of 663,900 in November 2012."
The March reduction in agent/broker employment comes after the subsector shed 1,000 jobs in February. In January, agent/broker employment was down by 300 jobs, and in December, it was down by 1,200 jobs.
In his analyses for all of those months, Hartwig called the drops unusual compared to historical trends.
Year-over-year, though, agent/broker employment is still up by 6,500 jobs.
For other subsectors, reinsurers shed 200 jobs, while claims-adjuster employment was down by 500.
The industry as a whole was down by 1,200. Total industry employment now stands at 2,346, 500.
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