While Chrissie Hynde's 1980s Pretenders song "My City Was Gone" laments how she viewed rampant development and pollution as having destroyed the "pretty countryside" of her Ohio-spent youth, this blog's title borrows a line from the chorus to give the Buckeye state a legitimate pat on the back for a new insurance jobs initiative.
On March 13, Ohio, with the help of Ohio Lt. Gov. (and director of the Ohio Department of Insurance) Mary Taylor, launched Insuring Ohio Futures, which focuses on figures from a recent study predicting 17,000 jobs in the state will be coming available through 2018 in the insurance industry due to retiring workers. In an unprecedented collaboration, 13 major insurance companies formed an alliance to address this major talent gap that could impact the state's economy.
Hey, like many others, I've been harping about the industry's looming talent gap for years. I'm happy to see Ohio doing something about it, and I hope other states with heavy concentrations of life insurance jobs will follow suit.
For the Insuring Ohio Futures initiative, a variety of regional events will be set up around the state over the next two months to focus on spreading the word to students, veterans and career-changers regarding careers in insurance. There's also a website at InsuringOhioFutures.com.
Taylor says that, with the help of Ohio Gov. John R. Kasich, insurance industry leaders banded together to develop a comprehensive plan to "increase awareness, provide more training opportunities, and ensure these high-paid, high-skilled positions are filled by a new generation of trained professionals."
Ohio is the seventh largest insurance state in the nation, with more than 100,000 employees and an annual statewide economic impact of nearly $6 billion. The launch of the Insuring Ohio Futures program and its website is intended to begin the process of recruiting the next generation of insurance employees to the industry and help maintain Ohio's place as a leader in insurance.
