At a time when most sectors, including the manufacturing sector, have frozen or cut down recruitments and expansion plans, the insurance industry seems to be bucking the trend.

A cross section of life insurers told Business Standard, while discussing their expansion and recruitment plans, that most jobs would be created in sales and services. With the industry expected to touch $52 billion in 2010 from $35 billion in 2007-08, insurers were bullish about the prospects.

State-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India, the country's largest life insurer, will be leading the way. The corporation is planning to recruit 10,000 employees and around 250,000 insurance agents across the country this year.

SBI [Get Quote] Life Insurance is planning to raise its agents' strength to 100,000 and has set a target of adding 250 branches this financial year.

Bhargav Dasgupta, executive director, ICICI [Get Quote] Prudential Life Insurance, said that in the last two years the company had expanded the distribution network by increasing the number of branches to over 2,090 from 177 and built an advisor base of over 250,000. "Our focus this year is to leverage this network to increase efficiency and push productivity," he said.

Rajiv Jamkhedkar, chief executive officer, Aegon Religare Life Insurance, said his company would recruit about 6,000 agents in the first year of operations, which would go up to 30,000 in three years. The company is also planning to open 51 branches in the first year, of which 48 are already operational across 39 cities.

Max New York Life Insurance is planning to increase its number of agents to 300,000 from 47,000 and add at least 250 offices every year going forward. This will expand Max New York Life's distribution footprint from 311 offices as on June '08 end to around 900 agency offices and 700 rural offices by FY12.

According to an industry analyst, the availability of manpower now is enormous and relatively cheaper since all major industries have stopped recruitment. However, the biggest challenge for the life insurers would be the attrition level, which was at its highest, touching over 35 per cent in 2007.

From just one company a decade ago, there are 22 life insurers in the country at present. As a major portion of the business comes from urban markets, the next step for these firms would be to tap semi-urban and rural markets.