By the Numbers: Rising Health Insurance Rates and Jobless Claims

Each week, the Mployer Advisor team parses through dozens of reports, industry news, updates, and headlines. Not every statistic or data set warrants an exclusive blog post, but there are numbers that deserve to be reported on a smaller scale.     

Here are some of the top numbers that caught our attention over the past two weeks.

10%

The average rate increase that health insurers in individual marketplaces across the U.S. will be implementing for insurance coverage in 2023, according to a study from The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and report in an article from the Associated Press. The KFF calculated the 10% raise through a rate filing review that included 72 payers in Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Washington, and Washington, D.C. Among these states, rate increase requests ranged from 5% to 14% in compliance to health plan use, indicating a return to pre-pandemic levels.

12 months

A recent global behavioral study on employee retention was conducted by LinkedIn using data pulled from user profiles. According to information entered in the past 12 months, employees in human resources had a 14.6% turnover rate. Check out this article to learn more about how you can prevent your HR team from experiencing burnout in the workplace.

93%  

This is the number of employers who say listing soft skills on your resume has a significant impact on who they hire, according to a recent study from ZipRecruiter. The ability to communicate is ranked a top skill that employers look for in potential employees, with 6.1 million jobs listing it. Next in line is customer service skills with 5.5 million employers listing it, followed by scheduling abilities with 5 million jobs listing the skill.  

251,000

This is the amount of initial jobless claims that were filed in the week leading up to July 16, according to seasonally adjusted research from the U.S. Department of Labor and reported in the Financial Times. Based on data that was not seasonally adjusted, Massachusetts had the highest number of new claims, followed by California, South Carolina, and Georgia. What’s more, a number of IT companies—including Tesla, Twitter, and Netflix—have recently reported lay-offs. For more information on the current employment situation, click here.  

76%

This is the number of employees who say they are content with their current job, according to an article by BenefitsPRO. Despite this percentage, approximately 47% of these people would consider quitting if that meant they could earn a higher salary elsewhere. Additionally, 36% would leave in exchange for more substantial retirement benefits. This data underscores the impact that financial benefits have on employees' decisions, even when they are satisfied with their job. Moreover, ensuring that your financial benefits offerings are of value is not only important for the future of your employees, but also for positive employee engagement and retention.  

54%

This is the number of employers that­–in the past year—have not strengthened their employee benefits package, according to a study done by software company isolved and reported in HR Executive. Voluntary benefits are an important asset to consider, not only when attempting to maintain a talented workforce, but also as a way to show your employees that their personal lives matter.  

To learn more about the positives that voluntary benefits reap, listen to a recent episode from Mployer Advisor’s “This Week in Benefits.”  

13

As of May 2022, this is the number of metro areas with an employment rate increase of at least 6.0% in the past year, according to a recent study from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Atlantic City-Hammonton, New Jersey is ranked as the area with the highest increase at 12.5%, followed by Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, Nevada at 9.0%, and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas, with an increase of 7.7%. Along with such dramatic increases, the BLS also compiled data from areas that had a notable decrease in employment rates, as well as some whose rates were unchanged over the year. For more information on the current employment situation and potential changes, check out this report from the Mployer Advisor blog.  

43%

The percentage of U.S. small business owners that are women, according to research done by the Small Business Administration in 2021. The study showed that 57.9% of these women opened a business because they desired to be their own boss. Another 37.7% started their business because they were unsatisfied with their jobs in corporate America and 29.8% of the women were eager to pursue their passion. What’s more, retail and e-commerce are the leading industries for female small business owners, followed by health, beauty, and fitness, as well as business services.  

Interested in more exclusive content? Check out additional blog posts from our By the Numbers series, or listen to our latest episode of This Week in Benefits.

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