Industries at a Glance: Finance and Insurance: NAICS 52

The finance and insurance sector is part of the financial activities supersector.

The Finance and Insurance sector comprises establishments primarily engaged in financial transactions (transactions involving the creation, liquidation, or change in ownership of financial assets) and/or in facilitating financial transactions. Three principal types of activities are identified:

1. Raising funds by taking deposits and/or issuing securities and, in the process, incurring liabilities. Establishments engaged in this activity use raised funds to acquire financial assets by making loans and/or purchasing securities. Putting themselves at risk, they channel funds from lenders to borrowers and transform or repackage the funds with respect to maturity, scale, and risk. This activity is known as financial intermediation.

2. Pooling of risk by underwriting insurance and annuities. Establishments engaged in this activity collect fees, insurance premiums, or annuity considerations; build up reserves; invest those reserves; and make contractual payments. Fees are based on the expected incidence of the insured risk and the expected return on investment.

3. Providing specialized services facilitating or supporting financial intermediation, insurance, and employee benefit programs.

In addition, monetary authorities charged with monetary control are included in this sector.

North American Industry Classification System

NOTE: There was a change in the definition of this subsector between NAICS 2002 and NAICS 2007. Some of the data below reflect the 2002 definition and some reflect the 2007 definition. See the BLS implementation schedule for NAICS 2007 to find out which BLS programs have already implemented NAICS 2007.

This section provides information relating to employment and unemployment in finance and insurance. While most data are obtained from employer or establishment surveys, information on industry unemployment comes from a national survey of households. The following tables present an overview of the industry including the number of jobs, the unemployment rate of those previously employed in the industry, job openings and labor turnover, union membership and representation, mass layoffs, data for occupations common to the industry, and projections of occupational employment change.

Employment, Unemployment, Layoffs, and Openings, Hires, and Separations

Union Membership and Representation

Extended Mass Layoffs

Employment by Occupation

Projections

Data series	Oct. 2011	Nov. 2011	Dec. 2011	Jan. 2012
Employment (in thousands)
Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)	5,744.1	5,750.7	(P) 5,756.4	(P) 5,748.9
Unemployment
Unemployment rate	5.8%	6.0%	4.9%	3.9%
Layoffs
Mass layoff events	25	17	24
Initial claimants for unemployment benefits	1,973	2,061	1,843
Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands)
Job openings	157	110	(P) 150
Hires	86	99	(P) 84
Separations	79	87	(P) 96
Footnotes (P) Preliminary

Data series	2008	2009	2010	2011
Union membership and representation
Members of unions (percent of wage and salary workers)	1.3%	1.4%	1.3%	1.1%
Represented by unions (percent of wage and salary workers)	1.8%	1.9%	1.8%	1.4%

Data series	4th quarter 2010	1st quarter 2011	2nd quarter 2011	3rd quarter 2011
Extended mass layoff events	50	39	(P) 60	(P) 36
Separations	9,827	4,543	(P) 9,145	(P) 6,181
Initial claimants	9,831	8,489	(P) 11,707	(P) 5,999
Footnotes (P) Preliminary

Data series	Employment, 2010
Accountants and auditors	94,820
Insurance sales agents	308,090
Loan officers	257,850
Securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents	262,170
Tellers	542,130

For projected (future) employment estimates, see the National Employment Matrix, which includes employment estimates by industry and occupation for finance and insurance.

Weekly earnings by union membership status are shown. Recent hourly and annual earnings for occupations commonly found in educational services. This section also contains information on the average cost of benefits paid by employers, as well as recent rates of change in wages and total compensation.

Union Membership and Representation

Earnings by Occupation

Employer Compensation Costs

This section presents data for the industry on the number of workplace fatalities and the rates of workplace injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers in finance and insurance. An injury or illness is considered to be work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the resulting condition or significantly aggravated a pre-existing condition.

This section presents data on the number of establishments in finance and insurance.

Data series	Back data	Median weekly earnings
Data series	Back data	2008	2009	2010	2011
Union membership and representation
Full-time workers		$857	$881	$902	$907
Members of unions		$762	$845	$819	$819
Represented by unions		$774	$837	$829	$826
Nonunion		$859	$882	$905	$908

Data series	Wages, 2010
	Hourly		Annual
	Median	Mean	Median	Mean
Accountants and auditors	$30.57	$33.80	$63,580	$70,310
Insurance sales agents	$22.55	$30.13	$46,900	$62,680
Loan officers	$26.84	$31.53	$55,820	$65,590
Securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents	$33.32	$45.53	$69,310	$94,700
Tellers	$11.57	$11.98	$24,070	$24,930

Data series	1st quarter 2011	2nd quarter 2011	3rd quarter 2011	4th quarter 2011
12-month percent change
Total compensation	3.0%	3.0%	3.3%	2.4%
Wages and salaries	3.4%	2.1%	2.5%	1.3%

Data series	Back data	3rd quarter 2011
Data series	Back data	Compensation component ($ per hour worked)	Percent of total compensation
Compensation costs
Total compensation		41.67	100.0
Wages and salaries		27.61	66.3
Total benefits		14.06	33.7
Insurance		3.61	8.7
Retirement		2.01	4.8

Data series	2007	2008	2009	2010
Fatalities
Number of fatalities	46	24	33	(P) 23
Rate of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers
Total recordable cases	0.9	0.9	0.8	0.8
Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer	0.4	0.3	0.2	0.3
Cases involving days away from work	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.2
Cases involving days of job transfer or restriction	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Footnotes (P) Preliminary

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics