Life insurers bringing more workers aboard these days

A potential sign that the life insurance industry might finally be coming out of the issues that have plagued it more or less since the start of the recession recently made headlines. It seems that many companies operating in the sector are now starting to bring aboard more workers, and the insurance industry as a whole appears to be booming in this regard.

In fact, 58 percent of insurers say that they're going to try to increase the size of their workforces this year, nearly reaching the all-time record high set earlier this year when expectations for improvement in 2014 were just a little higher, according to the latest U.S. Insurance Labor Outlook Study, released twice per year by the Jacobson Group and the Ward Group. That helps to underscore the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which states that the unemployment rate for those in the insurance industry is just 3.4 percent, well below the national average overall.

Gregory Jacobson, the co-chief executive officer for the Jacobson Group noted that this is a solid indication that the insurance industry overall is returning to “pre-recession rates,” the report said. This is largely the result of the fact that the sector seems to be on much more solid ground, but some issues still remain going forward.

Problems in insurance sector similar to other businesses
Another potential reason that insurers aren't hiring as vigorously this year as they might have initially projected is that many companies just can't find prospective employees with all the skills they might need, the report said. That's also increasing competition for the smaller-than-expected number of qualified applicants.

There is, however, still a wealth of good news for insurers, the report said. More than 4 out of 5 companies say that they expect to see revenues grow this year, and in general, it seems that job numbers will grow some 1.01 percent over the remainder of the year. For the most part, these hires will likely be in the technology, actuarial, and analytics fields in particular.

Life insurance companies may not have as easy a time with this kind of improvement, simply because their bottom lines aren't improving as quickly as businesses in other insurance sectors, but nonetheless they may be able to expect improvement. Data shows enrollment in life plans is creeping up slowly but surely, and with the improving economy, it's unlikely that this will abate any time soon.