SAN FRANCISCO - It’s no secret that the insurance industry is facing an enormous talent gap in the coming years. As more boomers retire every day, the industry will need to fill 70,000 positions per year, yet only 14,000 students each year are currently pursuing risk and insurance degrees. But as Jessica Gaudio of MyPath told attendees Thursday at the 2015 Social Media Conference for Financial Services, social media provides a powerful way to attract young workers.

Challenges

Here’s the bad news:

• Only 12 percent of millennials surveyed said they think of the insurance industry as innovative

• Just 5 percent thought of insurance as exciting

• One-third of those surveyed described insurance as “boring”

Other industries, such as banking and tech, will be competing with the insurance industry for younger talent, Gaudio said, and unless changes are made, the insurance industry will be unable to fill the coming shortage. Social media provides a great opportunity to let millennials know what the industry has to offer, and to address the misconceptions and limited understanding.