Nationwide makes more job cuts – 480 out

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. has eliminated 480 information technology jobs, the company said Friday.

The cuts include 230 Nationwide employees and 250 contract workers, said spokesman Eric Hardgrove.

Source: Business First of Columbus

Insurance giant to axe 650 jobs

Insurance firm Legal and General (L&G) is to cut 10% of jobs in its 6,500-strong life and pensions division.

L&G made the announcement after reporting a £1.5bn annual loss, and said it was cutting costs as it fought the recession and stock market turmoil.

The company, which has offices in Surrey, Hove, Cardiff and London, said the figure included 450 job losses announced last month.

Source: BBC News

Bailed-out AIG Pays Out Hundreds of Millions in Bonuses

Bailed-out insurance giant AIG will no doubt be a heated topic of discussion today, with The Wall Street Journal and other news organizations reporting that the failed and essentially insolvent company is vowing to pay out $450 million in bonuses to its “top performers” — you know, the folks in the financial products unit, many of whom contributed to bringing the company to ruin and helped tank the entire economy in the process.

Update (03-15-2009): “There are a lot of terrible things that have happened in the last 18 months, but what’s happened at AIG is the most outrageous,” Lawrence Summers, chairman of the White House National Economic Council, said this morning on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos. “What that company did, the way it was not regulated, the way no one was watching, what’s proved necessary, it is outrageous.” (ABC,  “Widespread Backlash Over AIG Bonuses“)

Update (03-16-2009): AIG revealed on Sunday details of $105 billion of government funds that it paid to U.S. and international banks including Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale. (Source: MarketWatch)

Update 2 (03-16-2009): Obama Orders Treasury Chief to Try to Block A.I.G. Bonuses (Source: NYTimes)

Update 3 (03-16-2009): NY AG Seeking Info On Who Received Bonuses At AIG (Source: CNNMoney)

Update 4 (03-16-2009): AIG details $105 billion in payouts (Source: MarketWatch)

AIG Facts:

• The company (AIG) takes $170 billion in taxpayer money to keep itself afloat.
• Just this month, the company (AIG) reported a loss of $61.7 billion for the fourth quarter of last year — the largest corporate loss in history.
• AIG’s board of directors page (the company’s “top performers”)

Source: Washington Independent, AP

XL Cuts 10% of Staff, Slashes Dividend After Loss

According to Bloomberg: “XL Capital Ltd., the Bermuda-based business insurer, is cutting 10 percent of its staff and slashing the dividend by 47 percent after posting a second straight loss on investment declines.”

• North American insurers have slashed more than 4,000 jobs since the end of September.
• XL had 4,011 employees as of Dec. 31, 2007, according to a regulatory filing last year.
• XL joins insurers including Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. and Genworth Financial Inc. in dismissing employees after investment losses depleted capital.

Feds may make health insurance easier after layoff

It will get vastly cheaper for most people to keep health insurance after losing a job if the government’s stimulus plan becomes law. Some nickel and dime cuts in health coverage for the poor will be reversed, too. Geek jobs in medicine will grow.

Under a dramatic, temporary expansion of COBRA, the law that lets the unemployed keep health insurance from their old job for up to 18 months if they pay for it in full, costs would drop by about two-thirds for a year.

Moreover, people who lose a job they’ve had for 10 years could stay on COBRA at their expense all the way to age 65, when Medicare takes over, if they don’t get another job with insurance first. People 55 and over could do the same without meeting the 10-year requirement.

Source: AP

Cigna Cuts 1,100 Jobs, Expects Charge of $40 Million

According to Bloomberg: “Cigna Corp. (NYSE:CI), the health insurer whose shares fell 69 percent last year because of investment losses, said it will cut about 1,100 jobs and take a fourth-quarter after-tax charge of $30 million to $40 million for 2008.”

Aetna to cut 1,000 jobs in cost-cutting move

According to IHT: “Health insurer Aetna Inc. says it will eliminate 1,000 jobs, or about 2.8 percent of its work force, to reduce costs.”
“Aetna — the third-largest U.S. health insurer — employs 36,208 people. It has about 37.2 million members.
The company said last month it would cut staff and reduce costs as it deals with the U.S. recession and job losses, which is swelling the ranks of the uninsured.”