U.S. insurance industry payrolls bucked general economic trends for the second straight month, adding 3,200 positions even as the overall economy shed 20,000 jobs. The statistics come from seasonally adjusted data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2.

For the month, the sector’s payrolls rose to 2.322 million from 2.319 million in March, a figure that was itself revised upward from BLS’ prior estimate of 2.310 million. The sector has added 23,500 jobs since April 2007, up 1.02%. New insurance jobs represented nearly a quarter of the 96,000 nonfarm positions added over the past year, when total employment rose just 0.07%

Average weekly earnings for the industry’s nonsupervisory positions rose 5.1% from March 2007 to March this year. Agents and brokers saw the greatest gains, their weekly earnings rose 8.4% to $748.52. The property/casualty sector remained the most highly compensated, with employees averaging $967.05 a week, up 4.7% over March 2007.

U.S. Insurance Industry Jobs Up (BestWeek 5/2/08)

May 6, 2008