The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter – and closer.
Yesterday’s jobs report contained good news for the economy and for the workers comp industry – unemployment dropped 0.3% to 9.7%, a rate that is still way too high, but better than last month’s 10% and certainly headed in the right direction.
The details are even more encouraging – the first gains in manufacturing jobs in two and a half years (!) (+11,000) and a small uptick in hours worked per week.
The other good news is a sharp bump in temp workers (+52,000), and a huge drop in the “number of persons who worked part time for economic reasons (sometimes
referred to as involuntary part-time workers) fell from 9.2 to 8.3 million in January. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.” (source BLS)
This last statistic is telling; sometimes called the ‘underemployment rate’, the data indicated a result of 16.5 percent in January, a welcome improvement from December’s 17.3 percent.
Construction and transportation continued to suffer, with both sectors seeing continued declines in employment. However, there are a number of significant projects funded by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, including a major nuclear site decommission on the Savannah River that will result in the hiring of up to 3000 workers.
There’s also a report that new home construction in the Atlanta area is picking up, improving the fortunes of developers and laborers alike.
Hiring is slowly increasing, and the ever-so-slight uptick in manufacturing, the first in two and a half years, is hopefully a leading indicator.
When employment picks up, so does work comp premium, and inevitably claims. The good work by NCCI indicates the injury rate typically heads up at the end of a recession as employees are working longer hours and more overtime, the pace picks up, and less experienced workers are hired.
What does this mean for you?
Higher work comp premium volume, more injuries, and more work for managed care and claims organizations. I’d expect safety and loss control people to start getting more calls as well.
Feb
6
