Laid off from State Farm.

What State Farm layoffs have meant for employees

Each business area runs State Farm's 2025 exit program for itself, deciding if, when and how to use it, a spokesperson told WGLT, so whether you see an offer, and when, turns partly on which part of the company you work in. State Farm also said it didn't expect its McLean County headcount to change significantly. The last time it led with voluntary exits, in its 2017 IT realignment, it said it was uncertain how many people would accept, WGLT's October 2017 story reported, and the following March it announced the Bloomington IT cuts, the first count of jobs that realignment would cost, according to WGLT's March 2018 story. If your area opens the program and you're eligible, it may be worth reading the terms with that history in mind, since a voluntary exit is a choice the program leaves to you.

The 2017 closings came with job opportunities at State Farm's other locations, and when it announced them, a spokesman told WGLT it was impossible to predict the impact by location, because the moves involved individual workers' decisions over several years. Pay was a second question. In 2018, as State Farm expected claims jobs to move into Bloomington while similar IT positions were set to grow in the hubs, a spokesperson declined to compare their pay and called it proprietary, the March 2018 story said. If State Farm offers you a role in another city or another department, the pay, the title and the start date are fair things to see in writing as you weigh it against leaving.

The 2023 outsourcing put a different decision in front of IT staff, whether to keep doing similar work for a new employer. People who took HCLTech jobs spent that spring adjusting to a new company, and some were uneasy about new duties and changes to their benefits, WGLT reported. An outsourcing researcher at New York University told the station that even for people who are retained, the work is likely to change in nature once a vendor runs it. If a vendor taking on State Farm work offers you a position, it may be worth laying the two benefit packages side by side and asking how your State Farm service would carry over, since the title on the offer says little about either.

State Farm built its hub system to address skilled-labor shortages in the smaller cities that had served as regional headquarters, concentrating jobs in Dallas, Atlanta and Phoenix, where it already had a sizable presence, WGLT reported in October 2017. Michael Tipsord, then chief executive, had said in remarks the previous October that the company had and would keep about 15,000 workers in Bloomington-Normal and about 10,000 apiece in those three cities. For someone in a smaller office, staying with State Farm could mean moving to one of those four metro areas. For a claim filed from Illinois, Arizona, Texas or Georgia, Illinois unemployment benefits and the pages for Arizona, Texas and Georgia set out how it works there.

The 2019 Jacksonville letter left room for its dates to move. State Farm's employee relations manager said the affected employees had all been notified and that the company would update the state if its plans or the timing of separations changed, WJCT reported. If a State Farm closing date applies to you, the timing is worth reconfirming as that date nears, since the Jacksonville letter allowed for changes and said the state would hear about them.

The reasons State Farm gave for these moves were about the business. It told KNKX the Tacoma exit came from streamlining processes, customers' changing needs and making better use of its space, and its spokesman had described the 2017 consolidation in the same terms of efficiency, technology and larger locations. State Farm attributed part of its 2018 staff decline to automation and technology, Fortune reported, as WJCT relayed. When a hiring manager asks about leaving State Farm, those stated reasons are worth leaning on, and telling employers about a layoff has more on putting them into words.

A sourced history of State Farm layoffs

• January 2023, State Farm announces IT support move to HCLTech

  State Farm announced it would hand its day-to-day IT help desk and infrastructure work to HCLTech, then told Illinois officials it would lay off 451 Bloomington employees on March 31, WGLT reported. A spokesperson said many had been offered HCLTech jobs in similar roles.

• June 2019, State Farm gives notice of Jacksonville center closing

  In a June 26 letter, State Farm told the state it would close its Jacksonville Operations Center and eliminate 300 jobs, 143 on August 31 and 157 on November 30, WJCT reported.

• March 2018, State Farm announces about 890 Bloomington IT cuts

  State Farm said it would cut about 890 IT jobs in Bloomington while similar jobs were set to grow by 280 in Phoenix, 70 in Dallas and 30 in Atlanta, WGLT reported. Some could apply for other State Farm jobs or relocate.

• January 2018, State Farm says it will leave Tacoma

  State Farm said it would leave Tacoma by the end of 2018, moving some 1,400 jobs out of downtown, KNKX reported. About 600 employees were to transfer to nearby DuPont, about 250 jobs to Illinois and 150 to Arizona.

• May 2017, State Farm plans to close 11 smaller facilities

  State Farm said it would move 4,200 workers from 11 smaller leased sites in nine states to Bloomington and hubs in Atlanta, Dallas and Phoenix over four years, and that they'd have job opportunities elsewhere in the company, WGLT reported.

What to do if you're laid off from State Farm

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. State Farm's biggest hubs: Illinois, Texas, Georgia. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what State Farm's hub states run: Illinois, Texas, Georgia, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.