P/C insurance carrier employment in the U.S. declined in December, continuing a generally downward trend going back 18 months, the Insurance Information Institute said in a special report.

The number hit 515,800 in December 2015, down 600 from the same year-ago period, according to U.S. Labor Department Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited by the I.I.I. in a new report. Steven Weisbart, senior vice president and chief economist for the I.I.I., summarized the findings in a Feb. 5 posting for the institute.

As Weisbart explained in his article, P/C carrier employment has generally been trending downward over the last 18 months, though it had some upward month-over-month blips in November 2014, February 2015, June 2015, November 2015 and December 2013.

Those blips have kept the total relatively flat, Weisbart wrote, and now P/C carrier employment is about at the level it hit in October 2013.

Other employment numbers Weisbart cites in his article:

• Agent/broker employment landed at 774,800 in December 2015, a gain of 26,600, or 3.6 percent from December 2014. What’s more, half of the increases came in October and November 2015.
• U.S. reinsurance carrier employment was at 26,100 in December 2015, up 4.1 percent or 1,000 jobs from December 2014.
• The fully report is called “Insurance Industry Employment Trends: 1990-2016,” and also includes health insurer employment trends. Weisbart’s article carriers links to the documents, and can be accessed here.

Source: Insurance Information Institute