Financial services posted the highest voluntary turnover rate of any Australian industry surveyed in Aon’s 2026 Salary Increase and Turnover Study: 15.6%.
That figure comes from a survey of 500 Australian organisations conducted between July and September 2026. Consulting and business services came in second at 14.4%, while energy recorded the lowest rate at 8.7%.
When a broker leaves, they rarely go alone. Client relationships, claims knowledge, and specialist expertise go with them – often straight to a competitor. That’s a structural problem for a profession that's already struggling to bring new people in.
The National Insurance Brokers Association’s (NIBA) Data to Direction report, published in June 2026, found that brokers aged 18 to 29 account for just 11% of the general insurance broking workforce – the same share as those aged 60 and over. The two largest cohorts are aged 40 to 49 (31%) and 30 to 39 (28%), with a median age of 44 across the profession.
That age profile has a timeline attached to it. The Insurance Council of Australia’s (ICA) Insurance Industry Talent Roadmap estimates that 30% of the current insurance workforce will reach or exceed retirement age by 2030.
The broader consequences are visible in how insurers are responding. According to Gallagher Bassett’s Carrier Perspective: 2026 Claims Insights, talent attraction and retention ranked as the third-highest business challenge for Australian insurers in 2026, up from seventh the previous year. More than three-quarters of Australian insurers reported difficulty finding qualified candidates over the past 12 months, while 68% said they plan to increase investment in training and development, up from 48% in 2025.
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Aon’s study projects a median salary increase of 3.6% for Australian organisations in 2027, up marginally from the actual 3.5% recorded in 2026. Across industries, projected increases range from 3.5% to 4%, with technology, retail, e-commerce, wholesale and hospitality projected to reach the top of that band. Most sectors, including financial services, cluster near the 3.6% national median.
But the more telling finding is not the headline number – it’s what’s shifting underneath it.
Yvette O’Reilly, associate partner and talent data solutions business leader for Pacific at Aon, said the study points to a change in how employers are using their pay budgets.
“Salary budgets remain relatively stable, but employers are becoming more deliberate about where they invest reward dollars. The organisations achieving the greatest impact are not necessarily those spending more, but those making more informed decisions about where reward investment is directed. We are seeing employers become increasingly targeted in how they allocate salary increases, prioritising critical roles, scarce skills, and talent segments that are most important to future business performance,” O’Reilly said.
For a broking principal working with a fixed pay pool, that distinction matters in practice. Spreading an increase uniformly across all staff produces different outcomes to directing it toward senior brokers, account managers, or any role where losing the person carries the most commercial risk.
The 3.6% projection also needs context.
The Wage Price Index (WPI) rose 3.2% in the 12 months to June 2026, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). That means Aon’s projected employer budget sits only modestly above the economy-wide wage benchmark. Australia’s annual CPI inflation rate was 3.5% in the 12 months to July 2026, according to separate ABS data – still above the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) 2% to 3% target range.
In that environment, a 3.6% salary increase delivers a marginal real-terms gain at best. Applied broadly in a sector recording the country’s highest voluntary turnover, it may not hold the people who matter most.
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Belinda Armenta, head of talent data solutions for Asia Pacific at Aon, said the complexity of workforce decisions has pushed demand for better data.
“Workforce decisions have never been more complex, making access to reliable and defensible data essential for organisations. As AI, economic uncertainty, and changing workforce expectations continue to reshape the employment landscape, organisations need more than historical benchmarks. The ability to understand compensation trends, workforce movement, and emerging talent risks is helping leaders make more confident decisions about attracting, retaining, and developing the workforce they need for the future,” Armenta said.
NIBA’s Data to Direction report puts the commercial weight of the workforce problem in direct terms: brokers managed $35.6 billion in intermediated gross written premiums in the year to June 30, 2025, representing 46% of all general insurance written in Australia.
That volume of business depends on a profession where early-career entrants are at their lowest recorded share and retirements are approaching in volume.
