Facts + Statistics: Careers and employment

 
Insurance industry employment

The insurance industry is a major U.S. employer, providing some 2.8 million jobs in 2021 that encompass a wide variety of careers, including engineering and data science, human resources, public relations and financial analysts. Some jobs, including claims adjusters, actuaries and insurance underwriters, are unique to the insurance industry. But other roles are also needed, such as art historians and drone pilots. For further information, consult the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook, which includes these entries:​

 
Employment In Insurance, 2012-2021

(Annual averages, 000)

  Insurance carriers Insurance agencies, brokerages and related services  
  Direct insurers (1)            
Year Life and
health (2)		 Property/
casualty		 Reinsurers Total Insurance
agencies
and brokers		 Other
insurance-
related
activities (3)		 Total Total
industry
2012 811.3 599.5 25.7 1,436.4 659.6 272.3 931.8 2,368.3
2013 813.2 593.7 26.2 1,433.1 672.3 283.5 955.8 2,388.9
2014 829.0 594.7 25.1 1,448.7 720.0 297.1 1,017.1 2,465.8
2015 829.8 611.6 25.1 1,466.5 762.8 309.1 1,071.8 2,538.3
2016 818.9 643.5 25.3 1,487.7 783.5 321.5 1,105.0 2,592.7
2017 850.4 639.7 26.6 1,516.7 809.6 333.3 1,142.9 2,659.6
2018 882.8 629.5 28.6 1,540.9 825.6 346.2 1,171.8 2,712.7
2019 931.2 650.3 28.6 1,610.1 842.8 349.5 1,192.2 2,802.3
2020 945.6 653.9 27.6 1,627.1 856.5 352.3 1,208.8 2,835.9
2021 911.4 628.6 26.9 1,566.9 881.5 353.2 1,234.6 2,801.5

(1) Establishments primarily engaged in initially underwriting insurance policies.
(2) Includes establishments engaged in underwriting annuities, life insurance and health and medical insurance policies.
(3) Includes claims adjusters, third-party administrators of insurance funds and other service personnel such as advisory and insurance ratemaking services.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Women in insurance

In 2021, women accounted for 47 percent of all workers, based on data from households in the Current Population Survey (CPS), an annual survey of business establishments in private industry conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Data indicates 1.6 million women were employed in the insurance industry—58.9 percent of the total 2.8 million insurance workers. In fact, women have comprised about 60 percent of the industry workforce each year since 2012. However, representation varies across occupations, such as sales agents (50 percent) and claims and policy clerks (78 percent).

 
Women In Insurance, 2021

 

Occupation Total employed
(000)		 Percent of women
In that occupation
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks 257 78.2%
Claims adjusters, appraisers, examiners and investigators 330 58.2
Insurance underwriters 128 61.4
Insurance sales agents 600 50.0
Actuaries 29 (1)

(1) Data not shown where base is less than 50,000.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey. http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm

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Diversity in the workplace

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has information on diversity in the workplace by industry, including insurance, at http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat18.htm. It has information on diversity by occupation, including insurance sales agents, claims adjusters, insurance claims and policy processing clerks, insurance underwriters and actuaries posted at http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm.

 
Remote Workers 

Remote working continues to be prevalent as 45 percent of full-time U.S. employees worked from home either all (25 percent) or part of the time (20 percent), according to Gallup’s September 2021 update of its monthly employment trends.  

In 2019, 7.9 million Americans, or 5.2 percent of the U.S. workforce said they worked from home, in contrast to 5.8 million in 2010, or 4.3 percent of the workforce, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

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