The planned job eliminations mean that about 780 of the 1,800 people employed at Aviva USA on May 1 have either left or been told their jobs are being eliminated. That’s 43 percent of the workforce at a time when states are spending millions to battle one another for jobs.
via Aviva confirms additional 326 planned layoffs | Des Moines Register Staff Blogs.
MetLife (NYSE: MET) has begun its layoffs in the Northeast for jobs that are moving to North Carolina this fall, per its agreement to the state in March to create 2,600 jobs in Cary and in Charlotte in return for more than $100 million in economic development incentives.
via MetLife begins layoffs to prep for Cary entrance – Triangle Business Journal.
MetLife has about 5,000 advisers who sell insurance and investment products, down from 7,500 in February of 2012, Eric Steigerwalt, head of MetLife’s U.S. retail business, said at a May 21 investor day presentation. The New York-based firm lowered the number of agencies to about 60, from 85, he said.
“We’re not financing advisers who, frankly, were never going to make it in this business,” Steigerwalt said. “Our productivity is way up and we’re saving a lot of money.”
via MetLife Cuts 2,500 Advisers Seen Lacking Chance of Success – Businessweek.
Aviva cut 2,500 jobs globally last year and has made annualized cost savings of 275 million pounds through its efforts so far.
via Insurer Aviva to cut 2,000 jobs and redundancy payouts – chicagotribune.com.
The ax is falling in the UK.
The company didn’t say how many people are being laid off, but Graeme Harris, vice-president of communications and media relations at Manulife, said less than one per cent of the company’s global workforce will be affected.
The company had 27,500 employees around the world as of the end of last year, including 8,400 in Canada. About 3,800 are located in Waterloo Region, where Manulife’s Canadian operations are headquartered.
via Manulife’s ‘global review’ of operations leads to layoffs | guelphmercury.
An increasing number of parents are taking out life insurance policies on their college graduates in an effort to avoid being left tens of thousands of dollars in debt if their child dies and can’t repay the loans, The Financial Times reports.
via Parents to Students with Debt: ‘We’re Buying Insurance in Case You Die’.
In 2012, 63 percent of companies allowed employees to work some hours from home compared with 34 percent in 2005, according to the National Study of Employers, which was produced by the Society for Human Resource Management and the Families and Work Institute.
A 2010 survey by SHRM, the human resources industry’s largest trade group, said that providing flexible work arrangements such as telecommuting, part-time work and phased-in retirement was the best way to attract and retain the best workers. And 20 percent of companies allow workers to work full-time from home.
Of health insurer Aetna’s 35,000 employees, 14,500 do not have a desk at Aetna, a move that the company’s top executives, CEO Mark Bertolini and national business chief Joseph Zubretsky, have said helps cut costs in real estate.
via As Telecommuting Debate Rages, Aetna Sticks by Big At-Home Workforce – Insurance & Technology.
HT – Hank George
lifeunderwriter.net 
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