Some Insurers Hiring, not Firing

The latest insurance industry employment news has not been all negative. Aetna announced yesterday that it is adding 245 jobs at its New Albany, Ohio facility, stating that it plans to expand support for new business. Hiring should begin in July.

“Aetna has experienced strong, consistent membership growth over the past several years,” said Mark Bertolini, Aetna’s president told Reuters. “We expect to add more than one million new members this year and our expansion in New Albany will allow us to accommodate for this growth, as well as anticipated future growth.”

Aetna will make use of existing space in its approximately 162,000-square-foot facility in New Albany to house the new employees. Aetna will hire care management nurses, health concierges, project managers and support staff. Salaries will range from approximately $25,000 to $85,000. The new positions will be posted over a several month period. Interested people are encouraged to perform a job search on Aetna’s Web site to see new jobs as they are posted: www.aetna.com/working.

And although many property and casualty insurers have pulled back and even out of the Florida personal lines market, Allstate has openly started pitching new agents for its personal lines auto and specialty lines. The Northbrook, Ill., company, which stated it was not including homeowners in this initiative, has launched an agent marketing campaign with the plan to add 100 new offices in the state by year's end. Allstate is Florida’s second-largest auto insurer with nearly 1.7 million policies in force.

"This is really a great time for us to attract people who are self-motivated and goal- and success-oriented to own and operate their own business," said Mike Sheely, the company's VP of field operations for Florida, told the Tampa Tribune.

In Birmingham, Alabama, Liberty National Life Insurance said Monday that their growth path includes the addition of 100 more sales agents and sales managers.

Liberty National confirmed that it employs about 200 such people in the Birmingham area. The company said it plans to hold a job fair today in Birmingham. Average commission income for sales reps who worked a full year in 2008 was $61,675, said a company representative.