London’s insurance market hit a ten-year high in terms of jobs in 2023 as it bounced back from the pandemic.
Jobs across commercial insurance and reinsurance climbed to 59,000 last year, according to Financial Times-cited London Market Group (LMG) data.
This was against 41,000 in 2021 and marked the highest since 2013, which LMG chief executive Caroline Wagstaff said coincided with more business coming to London.
“They are busier,” she said, discussing London-based insurers, “it’s where people bring the difficult stuff”.
Gross written premiums across London hit US$180 billion (£141.7 billion) in the meantime, having doubled over the past decade.
London’s share of the commercial insurance and reinsurance market also climbed too, to a 12-year high of 8.3%.
This left the sector accounting for around 2% of the UK’s gross domestic product, following a rapid increase in its contribution since 2020, when the pandemic struck.
LMG noted growth of the London market, of 32% between 2020 and 2022, had lagged behind the likes of those in Bermuda, which increased by 39%.
“To continue to punch above our weight there is an urgent need to create a regulatory environment that facilitates UK domiciled captives [markets],” LMG chair Sean McGovern said.
This is to demonstrate “both at home and abroad that the market can respond swiftly and effectively”.