Employment down over 10 years among Canadian P&C carriers

The number of people employed by property and casualty insurers in Canada has dropped slightly over the past 10 years but increased from 2016 to 2017, a study released Tuesday says.

The total number of people working for P&C carriers in Canada was 112,466 last year. This was up 11.5% from 100,847 in 2016 but down 1.5% from 114,193 in 2007, the Conference Board of Canada reported.

The figures were released in Toronto on the Global Stage: 2018 Report Card on Canada and Toronto’s Financial Services Sector.

Silhouettes on cube boxes

The percentage of financial services employees working at P&C carriers in Toronto was 9.4% in 2017, down from 12.4% in 2007, the Conference Board of Canada said in the report. This is the sixth year the Conference Board has released this report, which cites a variety of sources, including Statistics Canada and the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

The total number of people working for P&C carriers in Toronto was 25,850 last year, down slightly from 25,872 in 2007 but up from 23,498 in 2016.

There were 274,525 people employed in financial services in the Toronto census metropolitan area in 2017, up from 209,437 in 2007.

Those jobs “ranged from tellers and insurance agents in local offices to head-office employees for multinational firms,” the Conference Board of Canada said in a release. “In addition, Toronto’s financial services sector also generated supply-chain or indirect effects, supporting an additional 284,659 jobs indirectly in areas such as consulting, accounting, and legal services across the country. Thus, Toronto’s financial services industry supported a total of 559,184 jobs in 2017.”

The Toronto census metropolitan area includes 21 towns and cities outside the Toronto city limits, a Conference Board spokesperson told Canadian Underwriter Tuesday. These include Mississauga, Brampton, Oakville, Vaughan, Markham, Richmond Hill, Aurora and Newmarket.

There were 132 P&C carriers operating in the Toronto CMA in 2017. Of those, 55 had fewer than 10 employees working in Toronto. Ten P&C carriers had between 10 and 19 employees working in the Toronto CMA, 39 had 20 to 29 workers, 16 employed between 100 and 199 and 12 employed 200 or more.

Of the 274,525 financial services employees in Toronto in 2017, 48.8% worked in banking, 21.4% in securities, 1.2% in asset management and 21.3% in insurance, including life and P&C.

In Ontario, P&C carriers employed 47,720 in 2017, up from 42,780 in 2016 and 47,590 in 2007.