London drives post-Covid boom in underwriting hires
Specialist non-life insurance firms were mainly responsible for uptick in underwriting hires with record number of vacancies in 2021 reported
New vacancies for underwriters in the UK shot up in 2021 as insurers around the country bolstered their teams with underwriting professionals at record pace.
Insurance firms in the UK published 2,100 underwriting vacancies, a new record that represented 120% year-on-year growth and a 91% jump in relation to pre-pandemic levels, according to recruitment industry data analyst Vacancysoft.
Hiring for underwriters in 2020 was generally resilient as vacancies for other insurance roles floundered, falling only 13% below the 2017 to 2019 three-year average.
Specialist non-life insurance firms were mainly responsible for the uptick in underwriting vacancies, publishing 140% more new jobs in 2021, compared with a 92% year-on-year rise within general insurance companies.
Non-life businesses in the UK now account for nearly 37% of all underwriting vacancies, a share that has risen 19 percentage points since 2017.
The increase in underwriting jobs was most marked in London, where general insurance and non-life businesses published almost the same number of vacancies in 2021. Vacancysoft described this as a remarkable development, given general insurance accounted for three-quarters of all underwriting vacancies in the capital five years ago.
AIG recorded the most underwriting vacancies in the UK last year, with 90 new job vacancies in 2021, representing a 21% year-on-year rise.
At Axa and RSA, in second and third place for volumes, new underwriting jobs were at identical levels, constituting an increase of 188% year-on-year for both firms.
New vacancies at Aviva experienced what Vacancysoft described as “explosive growth”, with jobs for underwriters up 363% year-on-year.
At CNA Hardy recruitment increased 433% year-on-year, while Ardonagh Group broke into the top 20 insurance sector companies in the UK by publishing 375% more vacancies compared with 2020.
James Chaplin, chief executive of Vacancysoft, said: “While recruitment across nearly all other areas within insurance was significantly cut back in 2020, underwriters remained much in demand across the country.
“Most of the sector was paralysed by uncertainty brought about by the liability associated with Covid. Now this matter is largely settled, insurers will be looking to revisit policies to immunise themselves against future extreme ‘black swan’ events – which is what this surge in hiring for underwriters suggests," he added.