Insurance companies and related industries continued their hiring ways in November, adding an unofficial 1,500 jobs to the sector, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said.
The additional jobs added to the nation’s overall unofficial job growth of 199,000 jobs for the month, the BLS said. The unofficial total exceeded October’s growth, when employers added 150,000 jobs, it said.
The national unemployment rate edged down from 3.9% to 3.7% in November, it said.
For the insurance sector, the November bottom line was 2.95 million jobs, ahead of November 2022, when total insurance jobs stood at 2.92 million, the BLS said.
Nationally, job gains occurred in health care, government and manufacturing, reflecting the return of workers from the autoworkers’ strike, the BLS said. Employment in retail trade declined, it said.
The BLS also reported the change in total nonfarm payroll employment for September was revised down by 35,000, from an additional 297,000 to 262,000. Meanwhile, the change for October remained at plus-150,000, it said.
President Joe Biden issued a statement noting employers created 14 million jobs since he took office, unemployment has remained below 4% for 22 months and inflation is down by two-thirds.
He said he is targeting health insurance premiums to bring more relief to Americans.
“But I know prices are still too high for too many Americans,” he said. “So my top economic priority is to lower costs for hardworking Americans. I’m doing everything in my power to bring down prescription drug costs, health insurance premiums and utility bills.”
For the insurance industry, total payrolls are reported each month on a seasonally adjusted basis, along with the current month’s nonfarm payrolls. Separately, data by industry segment, broken out by various carrier and noncarrier categories, are available only on an unadjusted basis for the prior month — in this case, October.
Of the seven categories of insurance and related industry jobs, four showed growth for the month.
Insurance agencies and brokerages led the growth with 949,900 jobs, up 6,400; direct property/casualty carriers, 597,000 jobs, up 1,700; direct life, health and medical carriers, 918,900 jobs, up 200; and reinsurance carriers, 31,100 jobs, up 100.
Among the categories where there were fewer jobs than in the previous month, pharmacy benefit managers and other third party administrators of insurance funds reported 216,800 jobs, down 400; claims adjusting, 58,300, down 300; and direct title and other direct insurers, 88,400 jobs, down 100.
The next jobs report for the month of December is scheduled to be released Jan. 5, 2024.