June pushed insurance industry unemployment up to 2.7%—the highest since May 2025—after another month of payroll declines, extending a spring slide that has diverged from the broader U.S. labor market.
10,700 insurance jobs disappeared in May, following losses of 9,100 in April and 5,700 in March, while the overall U.S. economy still added 57,000 nonfarm jobs in June and held unemployment at 4.2%.
AM Best said the cuts appear tied more to restructuring, productivity gains and expense control than financial stress, as insurers lean harder on AI after years of elevated catastrophe losses.
37% of insurers in an AM Best survey expect AI to redeploy workers into higher-value tasks, while only 9% foresee net head-count reductions, suggesting automation is reshaping roles more than hollowing out the workforce.
1.4 million insurance professionals are 55 or older—about a 6-to-1 ratio versus workers aged 20 to 24—leaving the industry to manage layoffs, AI adoption and a looming retirement wave at the same time.