Insurance sales agents are one of the least happy careers in the United States.
At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, insurance sales agents rate their career happiness 2.3 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 2% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy insurance sales agents are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:
Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers
| Career | Satisfaction | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Underwriter | 2.5 | $76k |
| Teller | 2.5 | $36k |
| Auditor | 2.5 | $77k |
| Car salesperson | 2.4 | $35k |
| Retail salesperson | 2.3 | $29k |
| Insurance sales agent | 2.3 | $50k |
| Debt collector | 2.2 | $38k |
| Insurance appraiser | 2.1 | $63k |
| Telemarketer | 1.8 | $29k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are insurance sales agents happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do insurance sales agents find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as insurance sales agents?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are insurance sales agent’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are insurance sales agents making the best use of their abilities?
Are insurance sales agents happy with their salary?
Insurance sales agents rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.8/5. Insurance sales agents tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked insurance sales agents how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.8 out of 5 stars
1880 insurance sales agents
11% of insurance sales agents rated their compensation 5 stars
22% of insurance sales agents rated their compensation 4 stars
26% of insurance sales agents rated their compensation 3 stars
19% of insurance sales agents rated their compensation 2 stars
22% of insurance sales agents rated their compensation 1 stars
Do insurance sales agents find their jobs meaningful?
On average, insurance sales agents rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.1/5. The majority of insurance sales agents struggle to find any sort of meaning in their work, likely resulting in less satisfaction with the career overall.
We asked insurance sales agents how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
2.1 out of 5 stars
1880 insurance sales agents
6% of insurance sales agents rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
9% of insurance sales agents rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
18% of insurance sales agents rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
27% of insurance sales agents rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
40% of insurance sales agents rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as insurance sales agents?
Insurance sales agents rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.2/5. The majority of insurance sales agents don’t see personality fit as a hinderence in their career.
We asked insurance sales agents how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
2022 insurance sales agents
18% of insurance sales agents rated their career fit 5 stars
28% of insurance sales agents rated their career fit 4 stars
23% of insurance sales agents rated their career fit 3 stars
16% of insurance sales agents rated their career fit 2 stars
14% of insurance sales agents rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is an insurance sales agent’s work environment?
As a whole, insurance sales agents rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.0/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.
We asked insurance sales agents how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.0 out of 5 stars
2015 insurance sales agents
12% of insurance sales agents rated their work environment 5 stars
25% of insurance sales agents rated their work environment 4 stars
26% of insurance sales agents rated their work environment 3 stars
20% of insurance sales agents rated their work environment 2 stars
17% of insurance sales agents rated their work environment 1 stars
Are insurance sales agents making the best use of their abilities?
Former insurance sales agents on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.4/5. Most feel that their skills are being underutilized in the career, probably leading to more general dissatisfaction with being an insurance sales agent.
We asked insurance sales agents how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
2.4 out of 5 stars
2022 insurance sales agents
7% of insurance sales agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
13% of insurance sales agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
23% of insurance sales agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
29% of insurance sales agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
27% of insurance sales agents rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars