The year’s first issue of PULSE of the Labor Market, the monthly supplement to our quarterly newsletter, is out and you can view it here. While the BLS reported an addition of 2,400 jobs in the insurance industry in December, the unemployment rate crept up to 3.7 percent. The average industry unemployment rate in 2012 ... PULSE of the Labor Market in 2013
At the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) Operations Conference this year, we moderated a panel on a topic that we here at Jacobson hold close: succession planning. We brought a dynamic panel of CEOs and a board chairman together to share their personal insights gleaned from all stages of the succession process. The ... The ROI of Succession Planning
With its ruling released on June 28th, the Supreme Court has, absent an unexpected legislative repeal, cemented the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) into U.S. law. Now that the judicial challenges have run their course, there is some clarity around the impacts this law will create. In the short term, I view this ... Impacts of the Supreme Court Validation of PPACA
This year, The Jacobson Group is celebrating a remarkable milestone: our 40th anniversary. My father founded the company in 1971 to provide the niche professional recruiting services that the insurance industry required. Through aggressive expansion in the following years, the company accommodated client needs and widened its scope of services to include executive search, work-at-home ... 40 Insurance Labor Market Stats
Our business at times offers great insight into the concerns of the industry. Unusually large numbers of ‘permanent’ job openings in a specific area across multiple organizations usually mark a shift in industry trends. For instance, the growth of the use of predictive modeling, primarily in P&C personal lines, led to an emphasis on recruiting ... On Death and Taxes
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that they intend to push back the ICD-10 healthcare compliance deadline by one year to October 2014. Naturally, this news was greeted with mixed reactions. Many say the delay is necessary as organizations struggle with a massive undertaking to meet the 2013 deadline. Opponents to ... Consequences of the ICD-10 Delay
At The Jacobson Group, we take a couple of different approaches to understanding the changes in the labor market within our industry. Looking backwards is relatively easy as we can simply compile the monthly BLS data that focuses on the insurance industry and see what happened – in fact we do just that and release ... March PULSE: A Look at the Labor Market
The Japanese saga playing out before our eyes is first and foremost a human tragedy that reminds all of us of the fragility of our lives and livelihoods. Here at Jacobson, we are praying for the best outcome for the survivors. Early estimates of insured damages are notoriously rough and so must be taken as ... Seeds of a Hard Market
My two youngest children are home from school today due to a scheduled day off. Because my wife has returned to college to prepare for her next career, one in healthcare, I volunteered to work out of my home office. There are certainly advantages to doing so: the elimination of the commute and the ability ... Homework: Insights on Telecommuting
Last year’s America’s Affordable Health Choices Act (also known as the PPACA) is slowly beginning to impact the marketplace. I have argued since I began this blog that the approach that was eventually passed into law was misguided as it did not address the root causes of the true primary issue: healthcare cost escalation. Now we ... Unintended Consequences of Healthcare Reform
Last week, Business Insurance published updated projections from Colorado State University’s Tropical Meteorology Project and from NOAA (National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration). Basically, both organizations expect storm season to heat up any day now and are still expecting a rather active season – CSU calls for ten hurricanes; NOAA calls for eight to twelve. We ... Hurricane Season Predicted to Heat Up
I penned the article in this quarter’s Compass, our executive newsletter, detailing my thoughts on the labor market recovery and expanding on some of the ideas you have read about in this blog. The response to this article has been terrific – and we really appreciate the feedback – and included a thought-provoking question that ... Labor Market Direction Question from Compass