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.

Most of these companies are looking for sales personnel to push products. The candidates would have to sit for an exam and procure a licence from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA). Once recruited; the agents are given a commission based on sales. “Recession has not had an effect on this sector. In fact, in the next year or so, there will be 22 insurance companies that will have a presence in Pune,” said Umesh Agarwal, sales manager, Agency, Future Generali.

Agarwal said they were looking to hire as many sales people as they could. “Earlier, we would get only people with a commerce background. Now, recruits from other sectors are coming in as well,” he said.

“Despite slowdowns, insurance is essential and people will continue to buy,” said Shankar Sahembekar, chief advisor of LIC, which has about 17 branches in the city. Nearly two months back, another branch was opened at the Sinhagad Road, he said.

“Expansions are on and business is steady. We are looking at recruiting around 40 sales agents,” he said.

A sales officer from SBI Life also said they were recruiting agents and added that the slowdown had not had any particular effect on the insurance sector.