At a time employees of industries like steel, construction and banking are being haunted by pink slips because of the economic slowdown, the insurance sector seems to be headed the opposite way.

The insurance industry is witnessing a hiring and and expansion phase in the city.

This can be gauged from branches of new companies springing up and existing ones expanding in the sector. Last week, a new insurance company — a joint venture between Future Group of India and the Generali Group of Italy — opened shop in Pune. The company hopes to start another branch in Pimpri-Chinchwad soon. Several others like SBI and Life Insurance Corporation are believed to have expansion plans as well.

“Insurance deals with risk. Whenever there is a recession, it is the insurance sector that flourishes as the sector is anti-cyclic with slowdown,” said K C Misra, director, National Insurance Academy. “In places where insurance companies have taken up mutual funds and other businesses, there have been pink slips, but in India this has not happened. For pure insurance companies, recession is a time to flourish,” he said.

At the employment agency in Pune, although demand for employees in the production and mechanical sectors has dipped, the services sector is still keen on hiring — particularly insurance companies. “Last week, around 14 insurance companies have come to us looking to recruit people in large numbers. In this sector, the demand for people has only been increasing. They are, in fact, not finding good talent ,” said M M Shingade, employment officer at the Pune Employment Exchange.

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