Mobility, Talent, Opportunity: Actuaries in an Era of High Migration
The report shows that international mobility remains historically high. After three years of sharp post-pandemic growth, permanent migration to OECD countries fell by 4% in 2024, but still reached 6.2 million new permanent immigrants, about 15% above 2019 levels.OECD Family migration remains the largest category, yet labour migration continues to represent a substantial share of inflows, even though it declined by 21% in 2024 after several years of expansion.OECD For professions facing skills shortages – which in many countries includes actuarial and quantitative risk roles – this still means a large potential pool of internationally mobile talent.
Temporary labour mobility is also important for actuarial careers, given the growth in fixed-term projects, secondments and international assignments. The report notes that temporary labour migration stabilised at a historically high level in 2024, with around 2.3 million work permits and authorisations issued in OECD countries (excluding Poland), 26% more than in 2019.OECD These schemes often target specific skills or sectors and can serve as entry channels for highly qualified professionals before they transition to permanent status.
Another pipeline for future actuaries is international education. OECD countries hosted more than 1.8 million international tertiary-education students in 2024. Although this was 13% fewer than in 2023, it still represents a very large cohort of internationally mobile, highly educated young professionals.OECD Many actuarial careers start in quantitative study programmes – maths, statistics, finance – where international student mobility is particularly strong.
The dimension of origins is equally striking: in 2024 more than 160 million people in OECD countries were foreign-born, and the foreign-born share of the population has risen from 9.1% in 2014 to 11.5%.OECD This confirms that migrant workers are a structural, not marginal, component of OECD labour markets – including in high-skill niches such as actuarial science.
Labour market outcomes for immigrants are generally favourable. The report highlights that, in 2024, about 77% of immigrants were economically active, 71% were employed and less than 10% were unemployed, with especially strong improvements for migrant women.OECD For employers, this underlines that immigrant professionals are already deeply integrated into the workforce; for actuarial associations and platforms, it supports the case for actively reaching out to foreign-born actuaries and students.
Policy is also moving in a direction that matters for actuarial mobility. According to the executive summary, labour migration policies are increasingly tailored to attracting talent and meeting specific labour market needs.OECD At the same time, many countries are tightening rules for some categories such as asylum seekers or certain international students, but are improving retention pathways for those whose profiles match priority skills. This suggests that actuaries – typically well-qualified, in sought-after professions in many markets, and heavily involved in regulated financial sectors – are likely to benefit from more targeted high-skill migration channels rather than broad, undifferentiated schemes.
In summary, while the OECD Outlook does not isolate actuaries as a separate category, it paints a picture of high and structurally important migration flows, robust labour market participation of immigrants, and increasingly talent-focused migration policies. For the actuarial workforce, this translates into a context where cross-border recruitment, international careers and mobile actuarial talent will remain a central feature of the profession in OECD countries.