Benefits September 26, 2005

Ten Firms Walk Away with Principal Employee Security Award

September 26, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Principal Financial Group has announced the 2005 winners of The Principal 10 Best Companies for Employee Financial Security.
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A Principal news release said the program is designed to honor firms that excel in selecting, managing and providing a benefits program that ensures employees’ long-term financial security. Now in its fourth year, the program focuses on firms that have five to 1,000 employees. More than 500 companies were nominated for the latest round of awards.

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The announcement said that the judges’ panel applauded the 2005 winners for preserving core medical, retirement and risk protection benefits despite cost pressures. Judges also gave this year’s winners kudos for innovation in offering wellness programs, one-on-one benefit guidance and do-it-for me retirement savings options.

Judges were also very impressed with how the winning companies provide “peace of mind” for their employees’ retirement savings through traditional defined benefit pension plans and generous employer contributions to defined contribution plans.

“I was struck by how many companies are still making a commitment to providing a traditional pension plan and to help their retirees with medical expenses. The generosity, diversity and richness of these programs seems to transcend employer size,” remarked Nevin Adams, editor-in-chief of PLANSPONSOR magazine and PLANSPONSOR .com and member of the 2005-judging panel.

Winning companies come from an array of industries ranging from manufacturing to financial services; and range in size from 15 to over 815 employees.

The Principal 10 Best Companies

  • Flexible Steel Lacing Company, Downers Grove, Illinois
  • American Council of Life Insurers, Washington, DC
  • American Lung Association, New York, New York
  • GuideOne Insurance, West Des Moines, Iowa
  • Campus USA Credit Union, Gainesville, Florida
  • The Washington Trust Company, Westerly, Rhode Island
  • Southwest Power Pool, Inc., Little Rock, Arkansas
  • Glatfelter Insurance Group, York, Pennsylvania
  • Moran Towing Corporation, New Canaan, Connecticut
  • Fremont Co-operative Produce Company, Freemont, Michigan.
Investing September 23, 2005

Feds Adopt New Jobless Counting Procedures for Storm Areas

September 23, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Department of Labor (DoL) primary data crunchers have put into place special procedures to count the nation's workforce, to cope with the effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
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Officials at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said the new procedures will be used when processing the September nonfarm-payrolls report scheduled to be released on October 7, according to a MarketWatch report. The regions most affected by the storm accounted for 1.9% of national employment, 1.7% of business establishments and 1.5% of wages, according to the BLS.

For the payroll survey, the BLS will try to contact the businesses in its sample. If no response is received, the BLS will assume that the location is closed and that payrolls for the month are zero. About one-third of jobs in the region are typically reported from a central business location elsewhere in the country.

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In the separate survey of households, the BLS will not make changes to its procedures. If a household cannot be contacted, it will be removed from the sample, giving households outside the region greater weight in the final data.

The problem is that much of New Orleans was under a mandatory evacuation order during the second week in September when the government typically surveys both business locations and households.

Officials admit that the special procedures could result in the payroll survey overstating the job losses, while the separate household survey could understate the losses. “This carries some risk of overstating employment loss,” the BLS said  in a statement Friday. The nonfarm-payroll, average-earnings and hours-worked data come from the business-establishment survey.

Many companies have said they’ve kept employees on payrolls despite the storm. State and local government workers also would remain on payrolls, in most cases. But for many small businesses, jobs have been lost, perhaps permanently.

So, employment losses from the storm could be understated in the household survey. The unemployment-rate and other demographic-employment data come from the household survey

To be counted as employed in the household survey, a person must have worked for pay for at least one hour during the week of September 12, or have been absent from their job for reasons ranging from sick leave to weather-related causes.

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