The insurance industry is facing a demographic shift it can no longer postpone addressing. According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the median age across insurance carriers and related activities is 44, not far above the national workforce median of 42.2, but high enough to signal trouble ahead.
Beneath that average lies a sharper truth: 1.37 million insurance professionals are age 55 or older (nearly one in four workers), while only 214,000 (4%) are between 20 and 24. That’s a 6-to-1 ratio of retirement-age employees to young entrants. In the insurance industry, the median age is 44. In tech, it’s 38. In finance, it’s 42. The industry is aging faster than its peers, and unlike those sectors, it has yet to rebrand itself as innovative or appealing to younger talent.
This imbalance isn’t just a statistic, it’s a signal. A wave of retirements threatens to drain decades of expertise, leadership, and client trust faster than new professionals can replace them. Every corner of the industry, from carriers to brokerages, is feeling the pressure to attract and develop the next generation before institutional knowledge fades.
If current trends hold, the insurance industry will lose roughly 361,000 workers to retirement in the next 5–10 years (those age 65+). Another 1 million in the 55–64 bracket will follow soon after. Meanwhile, only 236,000 workers under the age of 25 are currently positioned to replace them.
The math doesn’t work.
Organizations have a narrow window, three to five years, to act before the knowledge drain becomes irreversible. After that, the combined effects of talent scarcity, competition for skilled candidates, and operational disruption will make recovery exponentially harder and more expensive.
The Insurance Talent Shortage: What’s at Risk When Experience Retires
The consequences of inaction are steep. When seasoned professionals leave, they take decades of expertise with them, underwriting judgment refined through market cycles, trusted client relationships, familiarity with legacy systems, and instinctive risk assessment skills that can’t be easily documented.
A 30-year veteran doesn’t just retire; they take with them pattern recognition built over thousands of cases, relationship equity cultivated over decades, and the ability to troubleshoot systems no one else fully understands. Research suggests it takes 7–10 years to develop comparable expertise. The industry faces a potential loss of 20–30 million years of combined experience over the next decade, knowledge that cannot be replaced quickly or at scale.
Institutional knowledge loss threatens service continuity, operational efficiency, and competitive standing in ways no training manual can solve.
At the same time, the industry struggles to attract younger talent. The data reveals a growing disconnect:
80% of millennials report a limited understanding of insurance career paths.
Nearly 50% express low interest in the industry.
67% of insurers plan to increase headcount.
89% say they struggle to find qualified candidates—especially in underwriting and analytics.
Insurance unemployment hovers around 1.5%, compared to the national rate of 3.6%.
Every qualified candidate already has a job and likely multiple offers on the table as well.
Insurance Industry Costs: The Financial Impact of Workforce Aging
Data from workers’ compensation sources show that employees aged 60 and above experienced the largest increase in new claim volume between 2020 and 2024, creating added cost pressures for insurers. At the same time, demographic forecasts project the 65+ population will approach 80–90 million by 2050, driving higher demand for retirement products, annuities, and healthcare coverage.
Replacing a single experienced insurance professional costs 50–200% of their annual salary when factoring in recruiting, onboarding, and lost productivity. For carriers losing hundreds, or even thousands of employees that quickly, translates into tens of millions in replacement costs, before accounting for lost revenue from service gaps or compliance errors.
The result is a compounding challenge: workforce contraction at the exact moment customer demand expands. Without proactive action, insurers face predictable and preventable outcomes:
Operational breakdowns: reduced service capacity, disrupted client relationships, and compliance risks from knowledge gaps.
Competitive disadvantage: market share erosion, slower innovation, and declining appeal to top talent.
Financial strain: escalating recruitment costs, rising training expenses, and lost revenue from diminished service quality.
Deloitte calls this the “talent cliff”- a sudden drop in workforce capacity that destabilizes unprepared organizations. The firms that act now will retain both talent and trust. Those who delay will be left reacting to the crisis.
Two Paths Forward: The Prepared vs. The Unprepared
Over the next decade, the insurance sector will divide into two groups.
Organizations that act now will:
Capture top talent early through strong employer branding.
Preserve 80%+ of institutional knowledge via mentorship programs.
Position themselves as destination employers for Gen Z.
Use technology to scale learning and knowledge sharing.
Maintain competitive advantage through continuity and innovation.
Organizations that delay will:
Pay 30–50% premiums in the war for scarce talent.
Experience service breakdowns and knowledge gaps.
Lose market share to better-staffed competitors.
Face regulatory scrutiny tied to understaffing.
Struggle to rebuild lost expertise and relationships.
The difference between those outcomes isn’t market luck, it’s timing. The leaders who act in 2025 will define the competitive landscape of 2030.
Insurance Talent Acquisition Strategies: 6 Steps to Build a Future-Ready Workforce
Proactive workforce development is essential for sustaining performance in a rapidly changing market. Waiting until retirements accelerate will compound shortages and erode institutional knowledge that drives underwriting accuracy, claims efficiency, and client confidence.
The insurers planning today, by mapping retirements, mentoring successors, and aligning technology with talent, will define the next generation of industry leadership.
Pipeline Development: Attract millennials and Gen Z by highlighting analytics, technology, and client engagement. Show how insurance is evolving through data-driven decision-making and automation. Partner with universities and associations to create clear career entry points in claims, underwriting, and analytics.
Knowledge Transfer: Establish structured mentorship programs pairing retiring experts with new hires. Capture best practices, decision frameworks, and client insights before they’re lost. Document and measure outcomes to turn knowledge into a scalable organizational asset.
Workforce Planning: Create multi-year hiring roadmaps informed by retirement forecasts. Identify critical roles most at risk and recruit before vacancies appear. Use HR analytics to track tenure, age distribution, and succession readiness across departments.
Culture Development: Build a workplace where experience and innovation coexist. Offer clear career paths, flexible work options, and leadership programs that appeal across generations. A culture that values both expertise and curiosity attracts and keeps top talent.
Technology Integration: Use AI, automation, and digital knowledge-capture tools to maintain continuity and accelerate onboarding. Preserve institutional insights through systems, not individuals, so that expertise becomes part of the infrastructure.
Employer Branding: Stand out in a competitive hiring market through storytelling that communicates your mission, growth opportunities, and community impact. Younger professionals want purpose, flexibility, and growth, so you must show them your company offers all three.
Don’t wait for a perfect long-term plan. You can create momentum now by taking three immediate steps:
Audit your workforce demographics. Identify departments with the highest retirement risk within the next 3–5 years.
Launch a pilot mentorship program. Pair senior experts with junior staff to test knowledge transfer processes and refine as you go.
Revisit your employer brand. Survey employees under 30 about what drew them in and what would make them stay. Use those insights to sharpen your recruiting message.
These actions build momentum while competitors hesitate.
Insurance Staffing Solutions: How Jonus Helps Navigate Workforce Transitions
At Jonus, we help insurers confront these workforce challenges head-on. We align talent acquisition with business goals, facilitate knowledge transfer, and build sustainable workforce strategies that turn the retirement wave into an opportunity for growth.
This isn’t just about filling positions, it’s about building a workforce ready to carry the industry forward. We help clients forecast retirements, identify critical knowledge to preserve, and create recruiting strategies that resonate with the next generation of professionals.
The data is clear. The timeline is tight. The choice is urgent: capture institutional knowledge and build your future workforce now or face rising costs and lost momentum later. This demographic shift is happening whether the industry is ready or not. The only question is: will your organization lead through it or race to catch up?
