To borrow from Mark Twain, reports of the demise of Connecticut’s insurance industry may be slightly exaggerated.
So proclaims a new report, the “2018 Connecticut Insurance Market Brief,” from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, just released by the state’s Department of Economic & Community Development (DECD).
Connecticut’s insurance industry remains one of the largest in the world, and is a indispensible engine of the state’s economy according to the PwC report. It ranks third in the U.S. in direct written premiums, behind only New York and California.
There are 1,478 insurance companies licensed to do business in Connecticut, both domestic and international. These include accredited reinsurers, U.S. and foreign excess and surplus lines carriers, fraternal benefit societies and title companies.
Their economic footprint remains vast: In the aggregate these insurers write some $35.3 billion in premiums each year for the Connecticut market, and $170 billion in premiums for all markets foreign and domestic. They also contribute just under $14 billion annually to the state’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Connecticut leads the nation in the percentage of insurance-company employment — 27 percent — as a percentage of total employment. And insurance-industry jobs are well-paying — an average salary of $90,294 for more than 60,000 insurance carrier and related full-time jobs.
Also, according to the Connecticut Economic Resource Center (CERC), each new job in the insurance industry adds 2.32 jobs to the state’s economy through direct and indirect effects.
Contact Michael C. Bingham at mbingham@newhavenbiz.com
