Connecticut’s insurance industry draws hundreds of college students to career fair intended to find young workers and replace retirees heading for the exit

Even before Steven Pampreen entered college, the 18-year-old from Marlborough had a strong sense of what his career would be.

As he moved from elementary school to middle school, math was “something I was able to latch onto,” he said.

“I’ve always been big in numbers,” Pampreen said. “For me it’s kind of exciting. It’s a different opportunity to figure out which algorithm is necessary to figure out problems.”

It’s not a big leap from his comfort with calculations to the insurance industry, a business known for actuarial statistics, probability and a mass of other numbers. Home for a break in his studies at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, Pampreen on Friday joined several hundred other college students at an insurance industry career fair in Hartford.

His goal is to find an internship in January 2021 that will lead to a job.

Employment at insurance carriers and related activities -- Connecticut’s signature industry that dates to the 18th century with coverage of ships plying the Connecticut River -- was 63,471 in 2019, down slightly from 2017, but rising steadily since 2016. Like all businesses, insurers are scrambling to hire workers to replace waves of retirements among baby boomers and to bring in young workers such as Pampreen.

With average pay of more than $95,000 a year, it’s not hard to understand why the career fair, the ninth such annual gathering, is popular.

Audrey St. George, a Hartford resident, was attending her second insurance career fair in as many years. Finding work has been difficult.

“They take your resume and tell you to go on their website,” said St. George, a University of St. Joseph graduate who works in operations and finance at a bank. “I’ve never gotten a follow-up.”

“You have to keep trying,” she said.

Susan Winkler, executive director of Connecticut Insurance and Financial Services, an industry group, said organizers of the career fair hope to keep youngsters attending out-of-state colleges and universities in Connecticut by helping connect them to prospective employers.

“They’re home. We want them to stay in our state,” she said.

Eric Galvin, president of ConnectiCare and chairman of the Insurance and Financial Services board, discounted uncertainties caused by the health care debate in Washington.

The industry is adding employees regardless of the political arguments over federal involvement in health care, he said.

“We’d play a significant role no matter what,” Galvin said.

Stephen Singer can be reached at [email protected].

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