The insurance jobs market is buoyant, with plenty of vacancies despite recent redundancies, according to recruitment firm Hays.

Its quarterly report says a shortage of skilled candidates is leading to increased salaries and extra training.

The report comes at a time when some insurers are rationalising their operations and closing some offices, and others are investigating offshoring activities.

But Hays Insurance Director Jane McNeill says many employers “are still actively continuing with their hiring plans and recruiting and skill shortages are still evident in certain areas”.

“The majority of candidates who have been made redundant will have acquired transferable skills that should enable them to make the transition fairly easily into different roles within the sector,” she said.

The Hays report says there will be “a steady increase” in roles in the claims area until after November, when hiring will taper off for the Christmas period.

Demand is high for both general insurance and workers’ compensation staff, it says.

Employers are also willing to provide internal training and development opportunities to existing staff.

“Some employers in workers’ compensation are looking at candidates with little or no [specialist] experience but who possess strong claims experience.”

The report says life insurance specialists, particularly assessors, “are in short supply” and demand is also high for technical insurance experts, especially underwriters.

In the broking sector, firms are looking for entry-level candidates to service existing clients and hiring underwriters with commercial experience, or medical professions, for account executive positions.