Jobseekers must be agile and adaptive in this environment, with some insurance job sectors performing much better than others – are you aligning your career goals with the insurance job sector with the lowest declines?

Back in March we showed the winners and losers in the insurance job industry, comparing figures from Jan 2008 to Jan 2009.

With updated statistics from mid-2008 to mid-2009, the state of the industry is as follows:

Sector	Change	Previous #	Current #	Difference
Title insurance jobs	-15.20%	79,810	69,400	-10,410
Claims adjuster jobs	-13.20%	53,544	47,300	-6,244
3rd party administration jobs	-6.30%	131,174	123,400	-7,774
Agents & brokers jobs	-3.70%	676,954	652,800	-24,154
Life insurance jobs	-3%	356,380	346,000	-10,380
Property/casualty jobs	-2.60%	491,762	479,300	-12,462
Reinsurance jobs	-0.35%	28,900	28,800	-100

Insurance Job Trends

The early wins in health insurance jobs, reinsurance jobs and life insurance jobs, which were up in January’s 2008 comparison all suffered overall losses. Title insurance jobs continued to be the worst affected, and life insurance has declined the most since January flipping from a 0.30% increase to a 3% decrease.

Salaries

The good news is that In terms of insurance job salaries, across every sector they rose from June 2008 to June 2009, except for third party administrators with a 3% decline in weekly earnings.

Futher Reading

Government employment figures available at Bureau of Labor statistics

A recent survey from KPMG has shown optimism for upturns in risk management insurance jobs, so why not consider tailoring your CV around this, or looking at getting some qualifications around risk management?

Growth in Risk Management

The survey found that 53% of insurance industry executives believe that they will increase resources and hiring around risk management during 2009/2010.

This has come about as the business world during the recession has become riskier and with added complexity – risk management is what middle management are turning to.

What type of insurance jobs will stand to gain?

So what kind of insurance jobs will be created?

• Actuarial – calculating insurance reserves and premiums
• Underwriting – creating deals for clients under a demanding environment
• Accounting
• Auditing
• Legal Compliance
• Administrative

If you have the kind of analytical skills required, can understand the need for insurance companies to manage their risks and willing to take on a challenge, then things will be looking up for you.

If you are a looking for a job in insurance, it certainly pays to keep up with the news to know where the job cuts are most severe, and where there are still opportunities.

You also need to be aware what the bigger picture is: February’s job figures compounded the stiff challenge to the insurance jobs industry faces as a further 6,200 positions were lost. Overall unemployment now stands at 8.1% which is the highest since December 1983, with President Obama declaring the numbers “astounding”

So which insurance job sectors have been hit hardest, and which the least? (more…)

It’s not all bad news in the U.S. insurance industry – even though the industry had 7,300 fewer positions at the end of 2008 compared to the beginning of 08 according to seasonally adjusted data released Jan. 9 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The worst period of 2008 was from November to December where the industry saw 5,200 jobs cut.

Some indications on where the industry might be moving could be found in the figures based on the just-released November 2008 data by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

(more…)