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.

In a lack luster economy, the American people need more opportunities to get back to work, and Progressive Auto Insurance is doing its part to make that happen.

With the announcement of approximately 400 jobs coming to four states, Progressive's auto insurance division will be hiring in the sales and customer service sectors through the end of June.

The company will be providing the nearly 400 jobs at their call centers in Tampa, Fla.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Austin, Texas; and Cleveland, Ohio. Progressive's plan for the distribution of those jobs will be 110 hires in Tampa, 95 in Colorado Springs, 65 in Austin and 125 in Cleveland.

Progressive has been gaining customers and prominence in the auto insurance industry in recent years. Between 2007 and 2010, annual net premium for the company grew by about 5 percent from $13.8 billion in 2007 to $14.5 billion in 2010. As the nation's fourth largest writer of auto insurance policies, behind only State Farm, Allstate and Geico, Progressive has accounted for 7.7 percent of the $165.48 billion in total private passenger policy premiums in 2010 according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

For more information about possible job opportunities and auto insurance policies visit Progressive's home page at Progressive.com.

—AJ Register

All drivers have to carry valid auto insurance to legally get behind the wheel, but when driving is your job, those insurance policies can get pricey.

Massachusetts is one such state that has traditionally tended to charge commercial drivers significantly more than the national average, and because of this, the state’s Attorney General Martha Coakley recently announced that she has sent a letter to Insurance Commissioner Joseph Murphy requesting immediate action to reduce overcharged commercial auto insurance rates.

Coakley wrote the letter to try and persuade Murphy to use his statutory authority to reduce commercial auto insurance rates in the commonwealth after her office estimated that businesses in Massachusetts had been overcharged by close to $1 billion over the past seven years, and that rates in the "Bay State" were excessive by 21.6 percent as compared to the rest of the nation. The estimations were based on data compiled by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and the Automobile Insurers Bureau.

In the letter, Coakley argued that because of the excessive commercial auto insurance rates, economic activity in the commonwealth has been severely impacted, and that if the rates were better kept in check, at least $450 million in economic activity and the opening of 3,000 additional jobs would occur. She also used the law to help her argument stating that Massachusetts has had long standing regulations that explicitly say motor vehicle rates shall not be "unreasonably high for the insurance provided" or "excessive."

"These inflated commercial auto premiums impact virtually every industry in Massachusetts—from manufacturing, trucking, and construction to sales and services," Coakley said in her letter, "The added costs limit the ability of businesses to invest in Massachusetts and cost Massachusetts residents thousands of jobs. The problem is especially acute for small businesses, whose ability to create jobs is impaired by excessive rates."

In February, Coakley's previous attempt to reach out to Murphy failed when she asked him to reject a proposal from the Progressive Insurance Company to increase rates by 23 percent. Murphy refused Coakley's plea, claiming that businesses could easily shop around for lower prices if they felt the Progressive increase was too high.

Commissioner Murphy has yet to make a public statement on Coakley's letter, and it is still up in the air as to whether or not he plans to use his authority to make changes to Massachusetts' commercial auto insurance industry.

—AJ Register

Progressive Insurance's Snapshot program has been generating a lot of attention across the board, and because drivers everywhere want access to this unique auto insurance plan, the company has decided to introduce it in two new states.

Of the 34 states where Snapshot is already available, Mississippi and Wyoming are the newest members to be added to the line up.

It is unclear why the program wasn't available in Mississippi and Wyoming until now, but it is clear that Progressive is excited to introduce the program to a wider client base.

"Snapshot is about much more than just really cool and fun-to-use technology. It's a whole new way to think about car insurance. We believe snapshot is a game changer, representing the future of auto insurance as our mobile and interconnected world gives us the opportunity to offer immediate and substantial savings to our customers," said Progressive President and CEO Glenn Renwick in a press release.

The way the Snapshot program works is by cutting you a deal for good driving habits. In fact, most drivers already utilizing the program have saved up to 30 percent on their auto insurance premiums through a device that plugs into the onboard diagnostic port (OBD-II) found in most cars built after 1996, and tracks how and when you are driving.

However, the Snapshot program is not without its critics. Although the device doesn't use any kind of GPS nor does it monitor your speed, privacy advocates claim that the device is a slippery slope and may very well become intrusive into drivers’ personal lives.

"You start out with something that may appear to be benign, but when you have the capability to do even more comprehensive tracking, there is a tendency to do that type of tracking over time," Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego commented to Ad Age.

Overall, the Snapshot program has received a lot of praise in the states where it has already been available for its unique ability to tailor an auto insurance policy to the individual driver. But there are still mixed opinions on the program, and Progressive plans to keep a close eye on the response to it in Mississippi and Wyoming.

—AJ Register

Progressive has come into the public eye recently with the introduction of its odd yet hilarious spokeswoman Flo, but Progressive is planning on grabbing more of the driving public's attention with its snapshot program.

Although Progressive, along with other big auto insurance companies like Allstate and State Farm, has offered snapshot-like programs previously known as "pay-as-you-go" for several years now, the company is planning on gaining traction in the car insurance industry with a serious marketing push for snapshot as well as the technological innovations behind the program.

The way snapshot works is by cutting you a deal for your good driving habits through a device that plugs into the onboard diagnostic port, (OBD-II) found in most cars built after 1996, which tracks how and when you are driving. The latest telematics and mobile technology aggregate and render real-time data analysis about your driving—things like how many miles and how many sudden stops. Drivers who are less aggressive and travel fewer miles can get up to a 30 percent discount in 30 days.

“Snapshot is about much more than just really cool and fun-to-use technology. It’s a whole new way to think about car insurance. We believe snapshot is a game changer, representing the future of auto insurance as our mobile and interconnected world gives us the opportunity to offer immediate and substantial savings to our customers,”

said Progressive President and CEO Glenn Renwick in a press release.

However, the snapshot program is not without its critics. Although the device doesn't use any kind of GPS, nor does it monitor your speed, privacy advocates claim that the device is a slippery slope and may very well become intrusive into driver's personal lives.

"You start out with something that may appear to be benign, but when you have the capability to do even more comprehensive tracking, there is a tendency to do that type of tracking over time," Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego, said to Ad Age.

Either way you slice it, opting for usage-based insurance and personalized rates on individual's actual driving habits may very well be the wave of the future.

“This will signal a game changer for this industry in an industry that has not been seen as a game-changing industry. We've been in business for close to 75 years, and for the industry, this is our iPod; this is our big launch," added Progressive CMO Jeff Charney in a press release.

—AJ Register