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Actuaries

It's a bright outlook for

This career will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Learn more about what they do.

Analyze statistical data, such as mortality, accident, sickness, disability, and retirement rates and construct probability tables to forecast risk and liability for payment of future benefits. May ascertain insurance rates required and cash reserves necessary to ensure payment of future benefits.

Related: Accountants & Auditors Compensation, Benefits, & Job Analysis Specialists Financial & Investment Analysts Financial Risk Specialists Personal Financial Advisors

Industries: Finance & Insurance Professional, Science, & Technical

Summary
Details

Provide advice to clients on a contract basis, working as a consultant.
Provide expertise to help financial institutions manage risks and maximize returns associated with investment products or credit offerings.
Testify before public agencies on proposed legislation affecting businesses.
Determine policy contract provisions for each type of insurance.
Testify in court as expert witness or to provide legal evidence on matters such as the value of potential lifetime earnings of a person disabled or killed in an accident.
Explain changes in contract provisions to customers.
Manage credit and help price corporate security offerings.
Analyze statistical information to estimate mortality, accident, sickness, disability, and retirement rates.
Design, review, and help administer insurance, annuity and pension plans, determining financial soundness and calculating premiums.
Determine equitable basis for distributing surplus earnings under participating insurance and annuity contracts in mutual companies.
Collaborate with programmers, underwriters, accounts, claims experts, and senior management to help companies develop plans for new lines of business or improvements to existing business.
Provide advice to clients on a contract basis, working as a consultant.
Ascertain premium rates required and cash reserves and liabilities necessary to ensure payment of future benefits.
Construct probability tables for events such as fires, natural disasters, and unemployment, based on analysis of statistical data and other pertinent information.
Determine, or help determine, company policy, and explain complex technical matters to company executives, government officials, shareholders, policyholders, or the public.
Negotiate terms and conditions of reinsurance with other companies.

Technology Design
- Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
Management of Financial Resources
- Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
Active Listening
- Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
Monitoring
- Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
Service Orientation
- Looking for ways to help people.
Systems Analysis
- Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
Learning Strategies
- Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
Negotiation
- Bringing people together to solve differences.
Social Perceptiveness
- Understanding people's reactions.
Time Management
- Managing your time and the time of other people.
Reading Comprehension
- Reading work-related information.
Instructing
- Teaching people how to do something.
Programming
- Writing computer programs.
Mathematics
- Using math to solve problems.
Systems Evaluation
- Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
Judgment and Decision Making
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
Management of Personnel Resources
- Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
Active Learning
- Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
Equipment Maintenance
- Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
Critical Thinking
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
Persuasion
- Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
Troubleshooting
- Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
Equipment Selection
- Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
Management of Material Resources
- Managing equipment and materials.
Writing
- Writing things for co-workers or customers.
Complex Problem Solving
- Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
Operation and Control
- Using equipment or systems.
Quality Control Analysis
- Testing how well a product or service works.
Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
Speaking
- Talking to others.
Science
- Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
Coordination
- Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
Operations Analysis
- Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.

Problem Sensitivity
- Noticing when problems happen.
Finger Dexterity
- Putting together small parts with your fingers.
Gross Body Equilibrium
- Keeping your balance or staying upright.
Oral Comprehension
- Listening and understanding what people say.
Information Ordering
- Ordering or arranging things.
Category Flexibility
- Grouping things in different ways.
Number Facility
- Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
Response Orientation
- Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
Originality
- Creating new and original ideas.
Dynamic Flexibility
- Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Speech Clarity
- Speaking clearly.
Hearing Sensitivity
- Telling the difference between sounds.
Time Sharing
- Doing two or more things at the same time.
Inductive Reasoning
- Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
Speed of Limb Movement
- Quickly moving your arms and legs.
Oral Expression
- Communicating by speaking.
Control Precision
- Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
Written Comprehension
- Reading and understanding what is written.
Mathematical Reasoning
- Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
Visualization
- Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
Fluency of Ideas
- Coming up with lots of ideas.
Reaction Time
- Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
Dynamic Strength
- Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
Gross Body Coordination
- Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
Depth Perception
- Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
Near Vision
- Seeing details up close.
Explosive Strength
- Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
Glare Sensitivity
- Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
Visual Color Discrimination
- Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
Selective Attention
- Paying attention to something without being distracted.
Speed of Closure
- Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
Arm-Hand Steadiness
- Keeping your arm or hand steady.
Peripheral Vision
- Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
Stamina
- Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
Sound Localization
- Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
Deductive Reasoning
- Using rules to solve problems.
Spatial Orientation
- Knowing where things are around you.
Multilimb Coordination
- Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
Written Expression
- Communicating by writing.
Memorization
- Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
Rate Control
- Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
Perceptual Speed
- Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
Flexibility of Closure
- Seeing hidden patterns.
Manual Dexterity
- Holding or moving items with your hands.
Static Strength
- Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
Trunk Strength
- Using your lower back and stomach.
Wrist-Finger Speed
- Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
Extent Flexibility
- Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Night Vision
- Seeing at night or under low light.
Speech Recognition
- Recognizing spoken words.
Far Vision
- Seeing details that are far away.
Auditory Attention
- Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.

Geography
- Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
Telecommunications
- Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
Sales and Marketing
- Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
Medicine and Dentistry
- Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
Design
- Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
Sociology and Anthropology
- Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
Personnel and Human Resources
- Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
Building and Construction
- Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
Philosophy and Theology
- Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
Physics
- Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
Mechanical
- Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
Public Safety and Security
- Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
English Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
Communications and Media
- Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Engineering and Technology
- Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
Psychology
- Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Fine Arts
- Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
Biology
- Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
Foreign Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
Transportation
- Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
Administration and Management
- Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Customer and Personal Service
- Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
History and Archeology
- Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
Education and Training
- Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
Chemistry
- Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
Mathematics
- Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Therapy and Counseling
- Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
Law and Government
- Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
Computers and Electronics
- Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Production and Processing
- Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
Administrative
- Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
Economics and Accounting
- Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
Food Production
- Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.

Education

Bachelor's degree

Work Experience

No work experience

Training

More than 1 year on-the-job training

Education and Training Opportunities

Washington Annual Salary

153260/yr

Washington Hourly Wage

73.68/hr

Currently Employed

490

Yearly Projected Openings

Conventional: People interested in this work like activities that include data, detail, and regular routines. They do well at jobs that need:

Analytical Thinking
Attention to Detail
Integrity
Dependability
Achievement/Effort
Initiative

Desktop calculator
Desktop computers
Notebook computers
Personal computers

Analytical or scientific software
Business intelligence and data analysis software
Compliance software
Data base user interface and query software
Development environment software
Electronic mail software
Financial analysis software
Object or component oriented development software
Object oriented data base management software
Office suite software
Presentation software
Process mapping and design software
Project management software
Spreadsheet software
Word processing software

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