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No surprise, finding qualified workers remains the top concern for brokerage owners responding to Canadian Underwriter‘s 2025 National Broker Survey.

Sixty-six percent of 2025 survey respondents cite talent acquisition problems as a key concern, down slightly from 69% last year and 68% in 2023. Respondents’ verbatim comments indicate firms are constantly advertising open positions and doing HR work. One veteran owner of a boutique firm says, “I am always on the lookout for good employees.”

The problem’s particularly acute for firms with between 20 and 99 employees – 91% of such brokerages cite recruitment as a challenge, compared with 56% of firms with fewer than 20 people and 33% of large operations employing more than 100.

Related: Why brokers are optimistic about 2025

But a shift in the Number 2 response paints a stronger picture of how structural economic dynamics, particularly persistent inflation, affect broker operations.

Forty-seven percent of broker owner respondents say customer price demands are the second most serious challenge for their firms, down five percentage points from 2024, when interest rates were higher. But that changes for larger brokerages. Data for 2025 show customer price sensitivity is a serious problem for 67% of large firms.

Related: What’s worrying Canada’s brokers now?

Employee training and education is the third most important factor affecting business success. Forty-one per cent of broker owners say issues around employee training and education demand company attention. In 2024, only 29% voiced the concern.

Given the aging brokerage workforce, the statistical change could be a canary in the coalmine, pointing to issues that may emerge when large numbers of new employees must be brought up to speed to replace long-term talent that’s retiring.

“Finding qualified workers is [our] most difficult concern,” says one broker with more than 30 years in the business. “We do lots of training of people from outside the industry – hiring smart university-educated people and then teaching [insurance].”

Rounding out the Top 5, 41% of respondents call employee retention a firmwide challenge – consistent with data from prior years. Medium-sized firms with between 20 and 99 employees and firms with more than 100 employees show the highest levels of concern at 73% and 67% respectively in the 2025 survey.

Meanwhile, cost control impacts 38% of firms, in line with figures seen over the past three years.

Canadian Underwriter’s 2025 National Broker Survey was fielded between Jan. 22 and Feb. 20 with 165 responses. For most questions sets, respondents were able to choose multiple answers, so totals will not always equal 100%. The survey is supported by Sovereign Insurance.

This article is excerpted from one that appeared in the April-May 2025 print edition of Canadian Underwriter.

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Phil Porado

Phil, an award-winning journalist with over 30 years of experience in financial topics, has been managing editor of Canadian Underwriter for more than three years.