Country's fourth largest private sector insurer Max New York Life Insurance mulls hiring around

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14,000 employees and 30,000 agents in the current fiscal, at a time when many global companies are slashing jobs to cut costs amid global recession.

Another private sector insurer MetLife India had yesterday announced hiring about 2,000 managers as well as 30,000 advisors and double its network by March.

The decision to hire more people comes at a time when many financial sector giants like Citigroup and American Express have announced extensive plans to reduce their

workforce.

Ruling out any retrenchment plans in the wake of economic slowdown, senior director of Max New York Life Insurance, Anil Mehta said, "though the economic condition is not perfect globally, we have no plans to lay off any employee as we always took cost efficient measures."

He futher said that the company faces no redemption pressure and maintains double the solvency margin specified by the insurance regulator IRDA.

The company expects an overall premium growth of 65 per cent in the year 2008-09. In the last fiscal, it collected premium of Rs 2,714 crore and this year it is expected to rise to more than Rs 3,500 crore.

"In the first seven months of the current fiscal year, we grew at 65 per cent in terms of overall premium growth. We expect to see this momentum throughout the year," he said.

Currently, Max New York Life Insurance has 30 lakh policyholders.

Max New York Life Insurance, a joint venture between Max India Ltd and New York Life, has a market share of eight per cent among private life insurers in India.

At present, itv has around 500 branches and plans to take it to 1,600 by 2011.