Employment in financial activities, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ category for banks, insurers, brokerages and real estate, is down 129,000 jobs from its May 2025 peak. BLS said so in its September jobs report, released Oct. 2, and added that “most of the job loss” came in insurance carriers and related activities, which are down 90,000. The sector shed another 7,000 jobs in September itself.

The decline has now run for three straight months. Financial activities lost 10,000 jobs in July, 9,000 in August and 7,000 in September, according to BLS’s monthly change table, with the August and September figures still preliminary. A year ago, in September 2025, the sector was still adding jobs, up 4,000 for the month.

For anyone who works at a bank, an insurance company or a brokerage, the practical question is whether the cuts are spreading to their corner of the industry. The detailed table says the answer depends heavily on which corner. Insurance has taken the largest hit by far, banks have lost ground at a slower pace, and the securities side has grown.

BLS publishes the next sector reading in the October jobs report on Nov. 6, and the August and September figures are still preliminary.

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Insurance carries most of the loss

BLS’s detailed industry table shows insurance carriers and related activities at 3,006,400 jobs in September 2025 and 2,930,400 in September 2026, a seasonally adjusted drop of 76,000 over those twelve months. The 90,000 figure in BLS’s text is larger because it measures from the May 2025 peak rather than from September.

The release does not explain why insurance hiring reversed, and it says nothing about layoffs versus attrition. It counts jobs on payrolls, so a carrier that shrinks through retirements and unfilled openings shows up the same way as one that cuts staff.

Banks and lenders are slipping slowly

Credit intermediation, the category that includes banks, credit unions and nonbank lenders, fell from 2,565,100 to 2,521,900 jobs, a loss of 43,200 over the year. Within that, commercial banking went from 1,373,000 to 1,347,500, and nondepository lenders from 497,800 to 485,600. In September alone, the credit intermediation line lost 4,600 jobs, which is most of the sector’s 7,000 decline for the month.

What grew, and the scope of the 129,000

Securities, commodity contracts and related investment activities moved the other way: 1,146,800 jobs in September 2025 and 1,174,000 in September 2026, an increase of 27,200 over the year.

The 129,000 figure covers the whole financial activities supersector, which BLS splits into two parts. Finance and insurance, at 6,644,600 jobs in September, slid from 6,737,900 a year earlier. Real estate and rental and leasing, at 2,437,700, slipped from 2,451,300. So the figure is not a count of banks and insurers alone, and it is a net change in total employment. It is not a tally of layoffs, since hiring at other firms in the sector is netted against the losses.

The rest of the labor market gives context. BLS reported total nonfarm payroll employment up 29,000 in September and an unemployment rate of 4.2 percent, with 7.1 million people unemployed. Average hourly earnings were $37.81, up 3.0 percent from a year earlier. Health care, the sector at the other end of the table, grew from 18,181,800 jobs to 18,553,600 over the same twelve months, a gain of 371,800, so the finance decline is not a reflection of weak hiring everywhere.

Reading the sector’s next report

The next Employment Situation report, for October, is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. The financial activities line appears in the summary table near the top of the release and in Table B-1 with the sub-industries listed underneath, so a reader can see whether insurance, banking or real estate is moving the total.

Two cautions apply when comparing reports. The latest two months are preliminary and can be revised, which can change whether the three-month streak holds. And the table has two sets of columns, seasonally adjusted and not adjusted, which differ by a few thousand jobs in a line like credit intermediation (2,521,900 adjusted in September, 2,516,900 not adjusted).

Anyone whose employer is in one of these groups can check the specific sub-industry rather than the sector headline. A bank employee should look at credit intermediation, an agent or adjuster at insurance carriers and related activities, and a real estate worker at real estate. The sector total can fall while one of those lines is flat, as the securities line shows.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.