The insurance industry added 1,300 insurance jobs last month, according to preliminary numbers released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Economic Situation report published on Friday, October 5, 2018.

The insurance industry now employs 2,679,800 insurance workers, with an unemployment rate of 2.1 percent. Over the past three months, the insurance industry has added only 2,000 jobs largely due to job losses occurring in July. Comparatively, the insurance industry was the second-fastest growing industry within the Finance and Insurance sub-sector over the past three months, behind Securities, Commodities Contracts, Investments and Funds and Trusts.

Net-gain job growth within the Finance and Insurance sector over a three-month period.

Across all industries, the unemployment rate declined 0.2 percentage point to 3.7 percent in September while total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 134,000 jobs. Job gains occurred in professional and business services, in health care, and in transportation and warehousing.