Wage growth, remote work and product and company innovation made for an amazing year in 2022 actuarial recruiting. Smith Hanley Actuarial Recruiter, Rory Hauser, predicts these factors will continue to positively impact the 2023 actuarial market outlook..
Wage Growth
Along with most areas in the work force actuarial salaries from new offers grew ahead of their standard 10% increase. Great candidates could demand 30% increases. We see this trend slowing but still strong in 2023. According to a survey by Willis Towers Watson 21% of employers said they would reassess their total rewards package to ensure it it has the biggest impact on retention and engagement; 17% said they would raise wages and 125 said they would restructure and reduce headcount. The impact of the new pay transparency laws is starting to add pressure to employers to make adjustments. Carolina Valencia, VP of the HR practice at Gartner said, “Certain jobs will get a disproportionate share (of the salary budget increase) because they are critical or difficult to hire for.”
Remote Work
While remote work options continue at most firms, more and more employers are expressing a preference for back to office or a hybrid arrangement with a local candidate. This is one of the leading reasons for candidate’s beginning a job search now and into 2023. Interestingly in an Airtasker survey remote workers came out more productive than their in-office counterparts. Remote employees work an additional 1.4 more days per month than in-office employees, which adds up to 17 additional workdays a year.
Innovation
Actuarial Modernization and Transformation continue to revamp legacy systems while the health space leads product innovations and start-ups. Capital tightening will slow start-ups but organizational modernization will continue to accelerate.
2023 Actuarial Market Outlook
Candidates and employers are eyeing a possible recession with concern. If it does happen, we believe actuarial recruiting will stay strong due to the very low unemployment levels of actuaries and rising interest rates which typically benefit insurance companies.
