Canadian insurers are optimistic about increasing their staffing levels over the next three months, according to the 2013 Q1 edition of the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey.
In a survey of 1,900 Canadian employers, 14% of employers in the ‘Finance, Insurance and Real Estate’ category reported that they expected their total employment to increase over the next three months, 1% said they expected it to decrease, and 80% said it would stay the same, resulting in a Net Employment Outlook of 13% (15% when adjusted for seasonal work).
That’s the highest Net Employment Outlook out of 10 different occupational categories, save for that of Transportation and Public Utilities, which ranked first at 16%. The only other double-digit outlooks were reported in the education (11%) and services (10%) industries.
Where exactly in Canada should you apply if you want to be hired in the insurance industry?
Go East, young insurance professionals. Or West. But you may struggle to find increased job openings in Ontario and Quebec.
In Atlantic Canada, 35% of employers surveyed said they expected to be hiring more people over the first quarter of next year, whereas only 5% said they would downsize and 60% said they expected staffing levels to stay the same. That’s a whopping Net Employment Outlook of 30%, well above the 6% Net Employment Outlook for all industries in the region.
In Western Canada, 20% of employers in the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate sector reported expectations of increasing their hires, none (0%) reported any anticipated payroll decreases and 75% reported no change. The Net Employment Outlook of 20% almost doubled the optimistic 11% Net Employment Outlook across all industries in the region.
In Ontario, anticipated payroll gains in the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate sector – a 7% Net Employment Outlook – were much more modest when compared with the provincial outlook across all industries (5%). On the plus side, none of the Ontario employers in the survey reported any payroll decreases over the first three months of 2013.
Quebec may not be the place to pursue your career in insurance over the first three months of 2013, based on the province’s Net Employment Outlook of zero percent in the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate sector. This was equivalent to the no-growth (0%) outlook for all industries in the province.
