Insurance payrolls jumped by 3,500 in December, pushing industry employment higher by 45,500 for all of 2006. At year-end, insurance jobs totaled a record 2.320 million, up 1.8% from 2005. November’s payroll gain of 3,400 was revised slightly lower from initial reporting of 3,600. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the seasonally adjusted data on Jan. 5.

Total December nonfarm payrolls increased by a seasonally adjusted 167,000 to 136.214 million, after November's revised gain of 154,000 (previously 132,000). On a year-to-year basis, growth in December held at 1.4% for the second month. The 1.8% annual growth in insurance payrolls also was unchanged from November.

Total insurance industry payrolls are reported on a seasonally adjusted basis, along with the current month’s nonfarm payrolls. Separately, data by industry segment—broken out by various insurance carrier and noncarrier categories—are available only on an unadjusted basis for the prior month.

The just-released November detail suggested the annual gain in industry jobs has been more heavily weighted, proportionately, towards insurance carriers. The numbers showed an annual gain for November of 2.3% in insurance carrier employment, down from 2.5% in October. The overall annual growth of 1.8% in November's insurance industry payrolls reflected the gain in carrier employment combined with a 0.9% annual increase in jobs among insurance brokerages, agencies and related services.

The annual rates of change in November insurance carrier payrolls were gains of 2.4% for life, health and medical insurers, 1.9% for property/casualty insurers, 6.7% for reinsurers and 2.4% for title insurers.

In the noncarrier sector, November annual employment rose by 1.2% for agencies and brokerages, by 0.2% among third-party administrators, but fell by 4.8% for claims adjusting.

(By W. John Williams, A.M. Best Co. senior business analyst: W.JohnWilliams@ambest.com)