hello all Does anyone know how many Fellow and Associate actuaries are out there? I am thinking about market saturation and competiveness. Does anyone know anything about the below?? I am wondering for each category of Actuary (Fellow vs. Associate) each policy year what is the total number of members we have, and the membership movement for each category after each exam session? For example in Aug 2012 we have X number of Fellow and Y number of Associate, and in Aug 2013 we will have X+a number of Fellow and Y+b number of Associate. (For April 2013 the published number of new members qualifying as Fellow was 30, and 35 for Associate, but I can’t seem to find any details about total membership. I guess those published new qualified wouldn’t include anyone who qualified through exemptions via universities?) What if a member is qualified and no longer paying membership subscriptions (lapsed members), can he or she still be regarded as a Qualified Actuary? If so how many are there for those? For all qualified members which countries are they based? I have read it once in the Institute’s annual account (if I remembered correctly) one third of our members are oversea.
Institute website has the membership statistics. At a glance http://www.actuaries.org.uk/about-us/pages/glance More detail as at 2010/11 http://www.actuaries.org.uk/research-and-resources/documents/our-members-year-numbers-2010-2011
Interesting, I would like to know this as well. But I think you need to consider the exit of actuaries from your model as well. For e.g. Actuaries who die, retire, change profession (go on to do CFA (can't finish actuarial exams ) e.t.c. Also for completeness, total demand of actuaries in the whole of UK every calendar year would be relevant to assess the shortage or excess of supply of actuaries in the market.
Regarding the one on qualified actuaries not paying subscriptions. If you don't continue paying your certificate is worthless really. Qualified Actuaries have CPD requirements to meet if working in any vague occupation where it could be considered they are giving advice that could be considered actuarial. Have a read at CPD requirements and caveats around subscriptions are there are reduced fees etc that can be applied
I think we're in an era of massive change and transition in all areas of finance (banking, investments, insurance, pensions etc.). Thinking of joiners, leavers and 'saturation' is a mindset more akin to a medieval trade guild than a profession of the future!!!
Going by the difficulties I see recruiting qualified actuaries with significant relevant experience, I would say there's little worry of saturation. I dare say there may be a bulge coming through with the SII boom, but I'm not sure how big it will actually be once you get to the point of qualification + 2-3 years. Regarding universities, you can't attain any qualified category without at least one year's work experience for associateship, so those figures should include everyone. The only other category may be people coming from overseas - which may actually be quite a few.
In the next 3-5 years we may have a situation similar to the current England & Wales solicitors market. I suspect the Institute, ActEd and universities will encourage as many people as possible to take the exams so they can rake in the fees, even if the exam-takers have little chance of succeeding in the labour market. At the top end, actuarial roles will still be lucrative for those with transferable skills, in the same way as Magic Circle lawyers still do well despite the glut of E&W qualified solicitors. In the tier below, there will be many disenchanted part-qualified actuaries wishing they had invested their time doing something practical rather than the exams.
Yes, many of us are already there. If you ask well-known actuarial employers in the Midlands, they get 50+ CV's in for each Actuarial Analyst role.
