Farmers Insurance Group, California’s largest auto insurer, announced plans to cut 554 jobs this year at the offices of its newly acquired 21st Century Insurance unit in Woodland Hills. The decision to reduce the Woodland Hills workforce, currently of 979 employees, is part of an effort to streamline operations, the company said. By the end of 2010, the number of jobs cut from that location will reach 750. Farmers completed its purchase of 21st Century from troubled insurance giant American International Group Inc. on July 1, adding 21st Century’s system for selling auto insurance directly to motorists via telephone and the Internet to its roster of services. Some of the displaced workers from Woodland Hills will be offered jobs at other Farmers operation in Southern California, but it is unclear whether the firm will remain at the leased location in Woodland Hills. Economist Jack Kyser, the senior vice president and chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp, told the Los Angeles Times, that the impending layoffs will be another economic blow to the Valley, which has already lost thousands of jobs over the last few years as banks and mortgage companies have gone out of business or merged into larger, out-of-state companies. Andrea Alegria
