Employment at B.C.’s biggest insurance brokerage firms is up an average of 25.8% since 2014, according to data on Business in Vancouver’s list (page 15).
Average employment growth over the past year was 1.4%. In 2018, the average B.C. employee count at the province’s largest insurance brokers was 322.4, compared with 317.9 in 2017 and 256 in 2014.
Despite the recent slowdown in average employment growth, the median employment increased 13% to 187 employees in 2018 from 166 employees in 2017. This suggests that companies lower on the list expanded their workforce faster than the larger firms over the past year.
No. 18, Excel Insurance Group Inc., had the largest employment increase on BIV’s list, growing 40% to 28 employees in 2018 from 20 in 2017. No. 17, Willis Towers Watson, had the largest decline in employment at 12.5%, falling to 70 employees in 2018 from 80 employees in 2017.
The largest five insurance brokerages have each reported a provincial employment increase since 2014, but the growth rate has slowed over the past year. The average five-year employment growth for the five largest insurance brokerages was 21.1%. No. 1, HUB International Insurance Brokers, had the largest growth in the top five, increasing its employment 26.6% to 1,399 people in 2018 from 1,105 in 2014. However, the same company had the largest one-year employment decline, falling 10% in 2018 from 1,554 employees in 2017.
No. 2, the InsureBC Group, experienced a significant amount of its five-year employment growth over the past year, nearly matching its total growth over the previous four years. While it had the slowest five-year growth at 11.6% – to 865 employees in 2018 from 775 employees in 2014 – it also had the largest one-year growth at 4.2%, rising to 865 employees in 2018 from 830 employees in 2017. •
