[Update on February 9: January’s Economic Situation Report updated December’s preliminary numbers. These changes will be reflected in January’s job post]

The insurance industry saw a modest increase in employment with the addition of 4,200 jobs for the month of December, according to the latest employment numbers from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics released on January 9, 2015.

The insurance industry grew by 0.17% last month and now sits roughly at 2.47 million employed insurance workers. In 2014, the total number of employed insurance workers has increased by 69,300 jobs. The BLS also revised its earlier figure of 10,100 new insurance jobs for the month of November to 11,000 jobs.

The finance and insurance industry as a whole saw an increase in employment with the addition of 5,200 jobs for the month of December, despite several sub-sectors experiencing job losses.

Across all industries, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 252,000 jobs in December with job gains in professional and business services, construction, food services and drinking places, health care, and manufacturing.

Unemployment decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 5.6 percent while the number of unemployed persons declined by 383,000 to 8.7 million. Across 2014, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons were down by 1.1 percentage points and 1.7 million, respectively.

Employment numbers were revised for both October and November, from 243,000 to 261,000 jobs and 321,000 to 353,000 jobs respectively. With these revisions, employment gains for both months combined were 50,000 more than previously reported.