However, this decline in employment is not due to a lack of hiring efforts, with nearly two-thirds (61%) of insurance companies citing an expected increase in business volume as their primary reason for hiring. Rather, insurance companies are struggling to replace workers who are leaving the industry at a rapid pace. In the past decade, insurance companies typically operated with a staff turnover rate of about 8-9% but this figure has recently increased to a range of 12-15%.
The insurance industry is currently grappling with a significant challenge: staff shortages. Last year, the Hong Kong Insurance Authority (HKIA) reported that it is facing a shortage of personnel, with the regulator understaffed by around 10%. In 2022, Randstad reported that IFRS 17 and regional consolidation was “driving significant talent demand in Singapore’s insurance industry”.
The insurance sector as a whole is currently grappling with a worker shortfall, as demonstrated by various data points. In the US, the insurance industry's unemployment rate has remained at around 2.1% over the last six months, a figure that is notably lower than the national average. Insurance carriers are employing approximately 1.56 million people in the US, which represents a decrease of about 85,000 jobs since 2020.
