For the month, the industry's payrolls rose to 2.323 million from 2.321 million. Insurance firms have added 20,000 jobs since May 2007, up 0.86%. The financial services sector was down 3,700 jobs from April to May, with 5,500 jobs lost in the credit intermediation industry.
Total non-farm payrolls, which have fallen each month of 2008, were down 49,000 jobs from April to 137.7 million in May. The unemployment rate spiked to 5.5%, from 5.0% in April, the biggest monthly jump in more than a decade. The U.S. economy has lost 248,000 jobs since January.
Total insurance industry payrolls are reported on a seasonally adjusted basis, along with the current month's non-farm payrolls, the first Friday of each month. Separately, data by industry segment — broken out by various insurance carrier and non-carrier categories — are available only on an unadjusted basis for the prior month.
Based on the April 2008 data, reinsurers saw payrolls surge over the past year, up 12.5% from April 2007 to 30,600. Third-party administrators saw payrolls rise 3.8% to 131,100, while health insurers were up 2.9% to 437,800; life insurers were up 2.2% to 358,500; property/casualty insurers were up 1.1%, to 494,100; claims adjusters were up 1% to 51,800; and agents and brokers were up 0.3% to 677,000.