Insurance industry payrolls increase in the United States

There is a steady rise in insurance payrolls in the United States, according to an A.M. Best report, and there is some debate as to whether the expanding populations property and casualty claims in the wake of 2004-05 hurricanes might be related to the industrys employment increase.
A slew of hard storm seasons, new market expansions and industry buyouts may
be some of the factors fueling a steady rise in insurance payrolls, A.M. Best said, citing business analysts and the CEO of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America.
Employment figures for agencies, brokerages and other field business have risen 22.3% since 1997,
according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Insurance carrier figures for April 2007 showed annual growth up to 1.5% — a jump from 1.3% in March.
“The industry has been very profitable, and there’s been expansion,” Robert Rusbuldt, the CEO of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, told A.M. Best. And now everybody wants to acquire that profitable, growing agency. A lot of those [smaller] agencies have been acquired by now.”
Rusbuldt suggested mergers and acquisitions activity in the United States insurance industry might have contributed to the increase in payroll figures. Also, population growth and the economic growth are cited as factors.
But A.M. Best noted experts disagreed over the extent to which a larger population’s property and casualty claims experience, which showed markedly increased numbers after Hurricanes Katrina, Wilma and Rita, has affected employment in the industry.
“There’s a tremendous load on claims processing after disasters,” Rusbuldt told A.M. Best, suggesting that, for efficiency’s sake, providers have been closing agencies, hiring post-disaster adjustors and moving those new workers to increasingly larger office hubs. “You may not need that [separate] branch agency 20 miles down the road” if you want to grow financially, Rusbuldt said.
Steven Weisbart, an economist with the Insurance Information Institute, told A.M. Best he didnt see a link between increased claims and the need for more workers. “Increased claims don’t necessarily translate into increased employment,” he said.
As an example, A.M. Best Agency cited government statistics that showed brokerage payrolls in April jumped to a 2.6% rate of annual growth, but claims adjusting payrolls fell by 12.2%.