The percentage of life insurers that say they expect to increase the size of their staffs increased to 53% in January, from 50% in July 2010, and the percentage that expect to downsize has fallen to 5%, from 13%.
The Jacobson Group, Chicago, an insurance employment firm, and the Ward Group, Cincinnati, a data analysis firm, have published those figures in a summary of results from a survey of 106 U.S. and Canadian insurers conducted earlier this year and a similar study conducted about 6 
months earlier. The survey series began in July 2009.
About 18% of the insurers in the latest survey were life and health insurers.
For all participating insurers, the percentage saying they expect to expand their staffs has increased to 44% in January, from 35% in July 2009, and the percentage that say they expect to cut back has fallen to 13%, from 21%, over that same period.
Jacobson and Ward also asked participants what they think will happen to their companies' revenue over the next 12 months: 10% said revenue will decline, 19% said revenue will stay flat, and 56% said revenue will rise.
"The fact that more insurers expect to grow revenue than staff may reflect the feeling among many companies that they are still currently overstaffed compared to where they need to be to meet profit objectives," Jeff Rieder, president of the Ward Group, said during a teleconference on the survey results.
But the percentage of insurers that anticipate reducing
