Actuary

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

An Actuary calculates the financial costs of risk and uncertainty. Uses findings from statistical analysis and mathematical modeling to help businesses and clients minimize the cost of risk and develop business and investment strategies. Uses actuarial analysis of the probability and cost of natural disasters or accidents to develop insurance policies.

Job Outlook

There were 369 Actuary job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 12740 in the United States.

In combination with other careers in the Actuary industry, which includes the Actuary career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:

Salary

Many new Actuary jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.

National

The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $100,653.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $106,971.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Actuary postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $81,214.

Education and Experience

Posted Actuary jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.

Education Level	Percentage
Associate's Degree	0%
Bachelor's Degree	78.66%
Master's Degree	9.64%
Doctoral Degree	0.5%
Other	1.7%

Posted Actuary jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Years of Experience	Percentage
0 to 2 years	20.55%
3 to 5 years	43%
6 to 8 years	20.29%
9+ years	16.16%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Actuary positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.

Baseline Skills

A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.

Communication (46.44%)
Management (41.59%)
Mathematics (35.04%)
Leadership (28.85%)
Forecasting (24.99%)
Microsoft Excel (23.41%)
Problem Solving (20.58%)
Research (19.95%)
Writing (19.26%)
Presentations (16.4%)

Defining Skills

A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.

Actuarial Science (27.08%)
Underwriting (24.01%)
Economics (24.97%)
Finance (29.22%)
SQL (Programming Language) (37.97%)
Reinsurance (14.89%)
Statistics (32.21%)
SAS (Software) (22.72%)

Necessary Skills

A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.

Advanced Mathematics (16.41%)
Accounting (12.91%)
Auditing (10.02%)
Microsoft Access (4.89%)
Peer Review (8.21%)
Annuities (11.93%)
Financial Forecasting (8.83%)
Python (Programming Language) (16.96%)
Fundraising (8.46%)
Computer Science (9.18%)
Financial Statements (19.1%)
R (Programming Language) (18.7%)
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (9.59%)
Financial Analysis (8.97%)
Data Analysis (11.56%)
General Insurance (2.96%)
Risk Management (19.56%)
Medicare (8.8%)
International Financial Reporting Standards (1.18%)
Project Management (16.16%)
Visual Basic For Applications (12.03%)
New Product Development (19.3%)
Process Improvement (11.16%)
Predictive Modeling (6.75%)
Risk Analysis (8.83%)
Tableau (Business Intelligence Software) (7.88%)
Service-Oriented Architecture (7.39%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

Loss Reserving (3.39%)
Economic Capital (2.99%)
IBNR (4.65%)

Salary Boosting Skills

A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.

Actuarial Science (46.9%)
Economic Capital (5.17%)
IBNR (8.06%)
Reinsurance (25.78%)
Statistics (55.78%)

Alternative Job Titles

Sometimes employers post jobs with Actuary skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:

Actuarial Analyst
Actuarial Analyst/Associate Actuary
Actuarial Associate
Life Actuary
Pricing Actuary
Actuarial Consultant
Director of Actuarial Services
Actuarial Manager
Health Actuary

Similar Occupations

If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.

Common Employers

Here are the employers that have posted the most Actuary jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

Lincoln Financial Group (1250)
Humana (796)
Elevance Health (551)
Cambia (324)
UnitedHealth Group (314)
Kaiser Permanente (294)
USAA (273)
D W Simpson (253)
Centene (204)
Travelers (183)

North Carolina

Lincoln Financial Group (60)
Humana (31)
USAA (26)
Brighthouse Financial (22)
Scor (20)
Equitable (20)
Elevance Health (17)
Blue Cross Blue Shield (16)
Ascensus (12)
UnitedHealth Group (8)

NC State Programs Relevant to this Career

If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!

All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.

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