SSP Brochure:Layout 1 - INSETA

1.2.2 Employers by subsectorA sector-wide survey of employment, scarce and critical skills which was published in 2006 provided the INSETA with the opportunity toglean insight into the subsectoral composition of the sector. In the survey organisations were classified into subsectors on the basis of theirown descriptions of their main economic activities. However, this subsector demarcation is not “pure”, as many organisations were involvedin different aspects of insurance. The following subsectors are distinguished:• Collective investments• Life insurance• Pension funding• Healthcare benefits• Short-term insurance• Funeral insurance• Reinsurance• Brokers/Agents• Activities auxiliary to insurance, which include services rendered to the insurance industry such as human resource services, accountingand other financial services, legal and actuarial services, and training and development.• Non-insurance related activities. This refers to activities performed by organisations assigned to the INSETA by SARS or the Departmentof Labour (DoL) and that chose not to move to other SETAs. Such organisations found in the survey include debt-collecting firms,micro-lenders and even enterprises such as pawn shops.Table 1-3 shows the distribution of organisations and employees across the ten subsectors. Most (84.5%) of the organisations, werebrokerages or agents who sold insurance products while 9.0% were classified in the category “activities auxiliary to insurance”. Life insuranceand short-term insurance companies constituted only 0.6% and 1.2% respectively of the organisations in the sector. Life insurers were,however, the largest employers in the sector and accounted for 36.5% of all employees; short-term insurers employed 14.5% of the totalworkforce. Brokerages or agencies employed 21.9% of the workers in the sector.Table 1.3 Distribution of organisations and employees according to subsectorSubsectorOrganisationsEmployeesN % N %Collective investments 14 0.4 60 0.1Life insurance 25 0.6 37 442 36.5Pension funding 18 0.5 6 217 6.1Healthcare benefits 57 1.5 6 750 6.6Short-term insurance 45 1.2 14 846 14.5Funeral insurance 27 0.7 3 106 3.0Reinsurance 10 0.3 456 0.4Brokers/Agents 3 278 84.5 22 431 21.9Activities auxiliary to insurance 350 9.0 10 882 10.6Non-insurance related activities 57 1.5 267 0.3Total 3 881 100.0 102 458 100.0Source: Inseta, Survey of Employment, Scarce and Critical Skills in the Insurance Industry, May 2006Table 1-4 shows the extent to which organisations were involved in the different components of insurance at the time of the survey. Noneof the organisations that classified themselves in the collective investments subsector were involved in any other activities. However, 27.4%of the life insurers were also involved in collective investments, 36.2% were involved in the administration of pension funds, 22.2% wereinvolved in the administration of healthcare benefits, 15.4% offered short-term insurance, 51.5% offered funeral insurance and 4.9% indicatedthat they were involved in reinsurance. Similarly, many of the organisations that placed themselves in the healthcare benefits and the shortterminsurance subsectors were involved in other activities as well.INSETA Sector Skills Plan - page 2