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Industries at a Glance
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Finance and Insurance: NAICS 52
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About the Finance and Insurance sector
The finance and insurance sector is part of the financial activities supersector.
The Finance and Insurance sector comprises establishments primarily engaged in financial transactions (transactions involving the creation, liquidation, or change in ownership of financial assets) and/or in facilitating financial transactions. Three principal types of activities are identified:
1. Raising funds by taking deposits and/or issuing securities and, in the process, incurring liabilities. Establishments engaged in this activity use raised funds to acquire financial assets by making loans and/or purchasing securities. Putting themselves at risk, they channel funds from lenders to borrowers and transform or repackage the funds with respect to maturity, scale, and risk. This activity is known as financial intermediation.
2. Pooling of risk by underwriting insurance and annuities. Establishments engaged in this activity collect fees, insurance premiums, or annuity considerations; build up reserves; invest those reserves; and make contractual payments. Fees are based on the expected incidence of the insured risk and the expected return on investment.
3. Providing specialized services facilitating or supporting financial intermediation, insurance, and employee benefit programs.
In addition, monetary authorities charged with monetary control are included in this sector.
North American Industry Classification System
The finance and insurance sector consists of these subsectors:
- Monetary Authorities - Central Bank: NAICS 521
- Credit Intermediation and Related Activities: NAICS 522
- Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities: NAICS 523
- Insurance Carriers and Related Activities: NAICS 524
- Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles: NAICS 525
Workforce Statistics
This section provides information relating to employment and unemployment in finance and insurance. While most data are obtained from employer or establishment surveys, information on industry unemployment comes from a national survey of households. The following tables present an overview of the industry including the number of jobs, the unemployment rate of those previously employed in the industry, job openings and labor turnover, union membership and representation, data for occupations common to the industry, and projections of occupational employment change.
Employment, Unemployment, and Openings, Hires, and Separations
| Data series | Back data |
Jul. 2023 |
Aug. 2023 |
Sep. 2023 |
Oct. 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Employment (in thousands) |
|||||
Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted) |
|
6,722.0 | 6,720.1 | (p)6,716.6 | (p)6,708.8 |
Unemployment |
|||||
|
|
1.6% | 2.3% | 2.1% | 2.5% | |
Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands) |
|||||
|
|
351 | 407 | (p)512 | ||
|
|
137 | 156 | (p)116 | ||
|
|
118 | 197 | (p)116 | ||
|
Footnotes |
|||||
(Source: Current Employment Statistics, Current Population Survey, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey)
Union Membership and Representation
| Data series | Back data |
2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Union membership and representation |
|||||
Members of unions (percent of wage and salary workers) |
|
1.2% | 1.4% | 1.3% | 1.3% |
Represented by unions (percent of wage and salary workers) |
|
1.8% | 2.2% | 2.0% | 1.9% |
(Source: Current Population Survey)
Employment by Occupation
| Data series | Employment, 2022 |
|---|---|
| 117,120 | |
| 424,420 | |
| 299,060 | |
Securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents |
420,550 |
| 346,030 |
(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)
Projections
For projected (future) employment estimates, see the National Employment Matrix, which includes employment estimates by industry and occupation for finance and insurance.
(Source: Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections)
Earnings and Hours
Weekly earnings by union membership status are shown. Recent hourly and annual earnings for occupations commonly found in educational services. This section also contains information on the average cost of benefits paid by employers, as well as recent rates of change in wages and total compensation.
Earnings by Occupation
| Data series | Wages, 2022 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly | Annual | |||
| Median | Mean | Median | Mean | |
| $38.95 | $44.92 | $81,020 | $93,440 | |
| $28.06 | $37.16 | $58,360 | $77,300 | |
| $31.14 | $40.14 | $64,780 | $83,490 | |
Securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents |
$31.44 | $47.97 | $65,390 | $99,770 |
| $17.49 | $17.70 | $36,380 | $36,810 | |
(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)
Employee Benefits
This section presents data on the incidence (the percentage of workers with access to and participation in employer-provided benefit plans) and provisions of selected employee benefits from the National Compensation Survey. More Benefits estimates are also accessible from the Benefits database, the archived NCS publications page, and the complete Employee Benefits Excel dataset (XLSX).
| Data series | Access | Participation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Back data |
2023 | Back data |
2023 | |
Private industry |
||||
|
|
94 |
|
86 | |
|
|
42 |
|
23 | |
|
|
94 |
|
84 | |
(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)
| Data series | After 1 year of service | After 20 years of service | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Back data |
2023 | Back data |
2023 | |
Mean number of vacation days for private industry workers without consolidated leave plans |
|
13 |
|
20 |
(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)
| Data series | Back data |
2023 |
|---|---|---|
Percent of private industry workers with access to employer-sponsored benefits |
||
|
|
94 | |
|
|
98 | |
|
|
98 | |
Employer Compensation Costs
| Data series | Back data |
4th quarter 2022 |
1st quarter 2023 |
2nd quarter 2023 |
3rd quarter 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Private industry |
|||||
12-month percent change |
|||||
|
|
5.3% | 4.4% | 3.5% | 4.0% | |
|
|
4.8% | 3.7% | 3.2% | 4.2% | |
3-month percent change |
|||||
|
|
0.7% | 0.7% | 1.9% | 0.7% | |
|
|
0.7% | 0.1% | 2.4% | 0.9% | |
(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)
| Data series | Private industry | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compensation component ($ per hour worked) |
Percent of total compensation | |||
| Back data |
2nd quarter 2023 | Back data |
2nd quarter 2023 | |
|
|
64.94 |
|
100.0 | |
|
|
42.55 |
|
65.5 | |
|
|
22.39 |
|
34.5 | |
|
|
5.54 |
|
8.5 | |
|
|
2.54 |
|
3.9 | |
|
|
6.01 |
|
9.3 | |
(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)
Union Membership and Representation
| Data series | Back data |
Median weekly earnings | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | ||
Union membership and representation |
|||||
|
|
$1,167 | $1,266 | $1,317 | $1,377 | |
|
|
$1,033 | $1,003 | $1,012 | $1,667 | |
|
|
$1,062 | $1,125 | $1,037 | $1,348 | |
|
|
$1,169 | $1,270 | $1,328 | $1,378 | |
(Source: Current Population Survey)
Work-related Fatalities, Injuries, and Illnesses
This section presents data for the industry on the number of workplace fatalities and the rates of workplace injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers in finance and insurance. An injury or illness is considered to be work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the resulting condition or significantly aggravated a pre-existing condition.
| Data series | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Fatalities |
||||
| 30 | 21 | 20 | 16 | |
|
Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria. |
||||
| Data series | 2022 |
|---|---|
Rate of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers |
|
| 0.3 | |
Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer |
0.1 |
| 0.1 | |
| (1)0.0 | |
|
Footnotes |
|
|
Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria. |
|
(Source: Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities)
Workplace Trends
This section presents data on the number of establishments in finance and insurance.
Establishments
| Data series | Back data |
2nd quarter 2022 |
3rd quarter 2022 |
4th quarter 2022 |
1st quarter 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of establishments |
|||||
|
|
558,855 | 566,615 | 568,924 | (p)571,718 | |
|
|
186 | 189 | 190 | (p)191 | |
|
|
97 | 104 | 111 | (p)112 | |
|
|
777 | 799 | 806 | (p)809 | |
|
Footnotes |
|||||
(Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)
Data extracted on: November 21, 2023