Insurance
The Lansing area has become the Insurance Hub of the Midwest. Finance and insurance industries employ over 15,000 people in the Lansing region. From 2000 to 2006, growth in the region's finance and insurance industries (13.2 percent) outpaced national financial services growth (8.9 percent) by roughly five percent, according to the "Dollars & Sense: Investing in the Insurance and Financial Services Workforce,” a report released by Capital Area Michigan Works! and the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP). The financial and insurance sector in the Lansing area leads every other metropolitan area in the state in terms of total jobs (6.8 percent).Statewide, just 5.8 percent of jobs are in these two industries. According to the Capital Area Manufacturing Council, insurance is on par with state government, university education and auto manufacturing as a Lansing-area job provider. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that employment in Michigan's insurance industry will grow 9.5 percent between 2004 and 2014, a net gain of 5,300 jobs, generating $124.9 million in additional local and state tax revenues.
The growth has occurred as manufacturing employment and other areas of the economy declined, according to an analysis conducted by GSP Consulting Corp. The insurance industry will create another 2,500 jobs indirectly at businesses that support the insurance sector. From 2001 to 2005 -- as the state's economy spiraled downward -- the auto industry shed 25,000 jobs in Michigan and IT sector employment decline by 8,600 jobs. Employment in the insurance industry decreased just 0.1 percent during the same period, the study shows. The insurance industry contributed $7.7 billion to the gross domestic product from 2000 to 2004, or 4.8 percent, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. About half of that came in compensation to the more than 56,000 people who work in the industry.
Check out http://www.insuringlansing.com/inner.asp?z=1 to get information, updates, and other important Lansing Insurance Industry related news.
