Job Losses in Insurance Industry Continue to Trend Downward

Although the U.S. economy gained 216,000 jobs during March 2011, the insurance industry dropped 1,700 positions. This decrease continues a long-term decline that sees insurance employment down 1.7 percent since March 2010, with 2.21 million people currently working in some aspect of the business.

Breaking the figures down by category, life insurance employment is down 0,53 percent with positions related to health and medical coverage down 4.2 percent. Property and casualty saw a drop of 1.8 percent, title insurance 3.9 percent, and agents and brokers down 0.72 percent.

Claims adjustment drooped 2.1 percent and third-party administration 1.9 percent. The only area of the industry to see an improvement was reinsurance where positions gained 1.9 percent.

At the same time, however, weekly wages were up for existing workers. On average an insurance professional dealing with life coverage earns $1,022.40; health and medical $1,007.62; property and casualty, $1,046.80; reinsurance $963.79; agents and brokers $795.44; claims adjustment $952.88; and third-party administration $791.57.

The only area to see a drop in wages was title insurance, down to $867.35, a drop of 5.7 percent. Most analysts agree that the changes in title insurance reflect the ongoing weak condition of the real estate market.

Other decreases in number of workers are attributed to a contraction of the industry as it tries to trim expenses in the face of federal reforms as well as a growing reliance on Internet-based customer interaction.