December 01, 2008

Unlike most employers, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. is on a hiring spree. By the end of 2008, the Fortune 100 company will have picked up 1,500 new agents, boosting its total field force to 4,500. The company plans to hire an additional 1,500 agents in 2009, many of them recruited from the distressed sectors of the financial services industry."We’ve partnered with Web sites that reach people who have been laid off in financial services and we’re getting a good response," says Scott Capurso, director of net field force growth for MassMutual. "These people have transferable skills and they have contacts. Mortgage brokers, for example, have a book of business and are capable of doing a sales cycle."

Employment in the financial services industry is down by 200,000 jobs since it peaked in December 2006. By the end of 2008, the number of layoffs in financial services will top the number for 2007, which broke all records. The newly unemployed include thousands of commercial banking workers, thousands more from the mortgage and consumer lending sectors, securities analysts, accountants, customer service workers and salespeople.An additional 50,000 employees from the real estate sector have lost their jobs in 2008, including many with strong sales and service experience. With commercial work caught in a sharp decline, law firms are also shedding highly educated professionals with broad skills.Only pockets of the financial services industry are still hiring, and the prognosis for job openings in 2009 is bleak. The job openings rate has been in a downward spiral in all regions of the country for more than a year.