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Top 4 Growth Markets for Actuaries

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that “Employment of actuaries is projected to grow 22% from 2016 to 2026, much faster than the average for all occupations.” Where is this growth going to happen?

Driverless Cars

A new study from Intel and the research firm Strategy Analytics claims that driverless vehicles will be behind $7 trillion worth of economic activity and new efficiencies annually by 2050. That activity, according to the report, will include nearly $4 trillion from driverless ride-hailing and nearly $3 trillion from driverless delivery and business logistics. Who is going to assess the savings from the greater safety of autonomous vehicles? Actuaries.

Natural Disasters

According to the UN’s disaster-monitoring system, America sat alongside China and India in suffering the greatest number of natural disasters globally between 1995 and 2015. These disasters included earthquakes, storms, floods and heatwaves that either caused at least ten deaths, affected more than 100 people or prompted the declaration of a national emergency. Since 1970, the number of disasters worldwide has more than quadrupled to around 400 a year. Another dataset of less serious types of weather and climate-related events, defined as causing at least one death or a set amount of monetary damage, shows an increase, too. By these measures, compiled by Munich Re, there are six times more hydrological events now than in 1980. How is our country going to assess the severity of these disasters? Through the work of Actuaries.

Medicare Advantage

Medicare Advantage (MA) has increased in popularity throughout 2017 and is expected to be even more popular in 2018. A recent PwC report found that enrollment in MA health plans is expected to reach 21 million individuals, a five percent increase from the previous year. This is good news for payers offering MA plans. AM Best and the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the MA health plan premium revenues tripled from $69 billion in 2007 to $187 billion in 2016. The MA health plan market is growing at a relatively brisk pace even with traditionally high market concentrations among MA plans. Health Actuaries will have broad and deep opportunities in the next decade.

Annuities

As defined benefit pension plans continue to disappear, a new study shows more people are seeing the importance of products, such as annuities, that provide a guaranteed source of retirement income for life. In just one year, the percentage of people who consider an annuity a highly valuable addition to Social Security has grown from 61 percent to 73 percent, according to the “Guaranteed Lifetime Income Study” by Washington, D.C. based research firm Greenwald & Associates and CANNEX Financial Exchanges Ltd. Growth for Actuaries in an area that has been stagnant to shrinking for some time.

Interested in hiring an actuary or discussing your actuarial career? Contact Smith Hanley Associates’ Actuarial Recruiting Practice Lead, Rory Hauser at rhauser@smithhanley.com or 203.319-4305.

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