Geico to add 200 jobs to expanding workforce

Feb. 06--Geico said it plans to add about 200 employees this year at its regional office in Amherst, as the insurance giant's local presence continues to grow.

"The tremendous pool of talent in Western New York has helped this office prosper over the years," said Jeremy Connor, regional vice president. Geico has over 3,000 employees at its location in CrossPoint Business Park.

Geico, the second-largest auto insurer in the country, said it was adding 200 employees to better serve its growing customer base in New England.

Applicants can go to geico.com/careers/office-locations/new-york-buffalo for more information. The company is taking applications for jobs in claims, sales, service and for its management development program, which is designed to move college graduates into leadership roles.

Geico is seeking to fill jobs at a time when a low unemployment rate has increased competition for workers. Buffalo Niagara's unemployment rate in December was 4.1 percent, down from 5.5 percent the year before.

But Geico has steadily grown in the Buffalo Niagara region since opening in a temporary location in 2004, and then moving into its $40 million permanent home in CrossPoint the following year. In 2017, the company moved into a second building in the same business park, to accommodate its growth.

According to the state Department of Labor, the Buffalo Niagara region had 30,400 finance and insurance jobs in December. That was unchanged from the year before, but was up 13.4 percent from December 2004, the same year Geico started to build its local workforce.

Geico has surpassed the 2,500 job target the company announced when it announced plans for the customer service center in Getzville. Geico, like The Buffalo News, is owned by Berkshire Hathaway. Then-News publisher Stanford Lipsey helped persuade his friend, Warren Buffett, the chairman of both Berkshire Hathaway and The News, to locate Geico's northeast region offices in the Buffalo area.

In 2013, when Geico reached the 2,500-employee level in Amherst, Buffett declared, "It ain't over yet, fellas. We're going on from here."

CrossPoint has become a magnet for financial services and insurance jobs. The business park is also home to an M&T mortgage servicing center and a Citi financial services hub.

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