In a slow economy, it seems like one sector that is still hiring is the car insurance industry.

Progressive Auto Insurance recently announced that it will hire hundreds of employees in the Cleveland, Ohio, area, over 300 in Tampa, Florida, and a couple hundred in Colorado.

Cleveland and Florida are both suffering from high unemployment rates.

Many of the positions will be in sales, the people who try to get customers the cheapest car insurance policies, and the insurance claims department.

"We're constantly looking for ways to make it even easier for employees to grow and succeed," said Katie Koch, recruiting director for the company, in a press release. "At Progressive, our employees enjoy the flexibility to balance the demands of home and work. By putting our people first, we attract the best and brightest people around."

At this point, car insurance, allong with the solar energy industry, is one of the last few expanding sectors in the country.

It’s not news that some people are upset about the bank bailouts, especially in light of many recipients of bailout funds charging customers extra fees for debit card purchases. But there is another option, and it’s not even a new one.

State Farm—the insurance giant that offers a host of policies across auto, home, and life insurance—also offers banking, and it has for over 10 years.

Not only can you get cheap car insurance from State Farm, but you can get free checking accounts, free debit cards, ATM rebates, and mobile banking.

Nationwide also offers banking to customers. It operates with low costs because everything is done online. Nationwide Bank has been at it for about 4 years, offering most of the amenities that larger banks do, with the added bonus of home loans, life insurance, and car insurance policies.

So if you trust your car insurance company more than your bank, you have an option.

Bread trucks, party busses, and big rigs can all leave you looking like the Elephant Man on a bad-hair day, permanently, if they hit you. This is why we have auto insurance, not just for the little dings and scrapes that are relatively trivial cosmetic marks on our car, but for the serious injuries that can sometimes happen when driving.

There are almost as many types of insurance policies and plans as there are drivers, so it may get a little confusing when you go out to get insurance on that sweet new ride of yours. If you live in a state where no-fault insurance is available, you may want to consider looking into it.

Traditionally, insurance is slow on the draw when it comes down to paying you, and sometimes they don’t even pay you the proper amount of what you really need for your claim. This is where no-fault auto insurance picks up the pieces. By using a system that doesn’t pin driver against driver and doesn’t get hung up on the he-said, she-said circus of who was the one that caused the accident, no-fault insurance makes the assumption that regardless of who actually caused the wreck, you still need to be covered and compensated.

No-fault insurance coverage also works well when dealing with those sketchy individuals that are out on the road with no insurance whatsoever. In a traditional system of insurance, you may get hung out to dry by your insurance company in the event of an accident with an uninsured motorist, especially if you’re the one who caused the accident. By adopting a no-fault auto insurance policy, you are much more likely to get the help you need in a situation like this, because no-fault insurance grants you the luxury of being able to make a claim based more around the damage done, not who was at fault.

At any rate, the world of no fault insurance is turning a lot of heads when it comes down to costs, efficiency, and popularity. Additionally, recent studies have shown that no-fault auto insurance plans reduce transaction costs, match compensation more closely with economic loss, reduce the amounts paid in compensation for noneconomic loss to less seriously injured people, and speed up compensation.

—AJ Register