Breaking a long-standing trend, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that preliminary figures indicate a 1,400 job gain in October 2010 for the insurance industry as a whole.
In the month immediately prior, between August and September 2010, the industry lost a total of 6,000 positions.
With health care reform's first measures taking hold as of September 23, 2010, this may have helped to stem the tide of job losses a bit. Insurers are now scrambling to comply with many new measures required of the health insurance industry because of the Affordable Care Act, and therefore may have needed to increase staff slightly.
The insurance industry, based on available statistics at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website enjoyed a high of 2,312,000 positions in March of 2006. Each and every month since has seen a decline in the number of insurance industry positions resulting in a total reduction of 140,000 jobs.
Cautionary note: As the U.S. BLS website indicates these numbers are preliminary, but they do appear to harbor a much needed reprieve from long-standing job losses in the industry.
Check back here each month for an updated blog post detailing insurance industry-wide job trends and analysis of the Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs data.
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