Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Pinnacol CEO Interviewed

A few weeks ago the Pinnacol CEO was interviewed. I just came across it and thought it would be interesting to see what he had to say. You can read what he said here. Pinnacol is still interested in what he calls "separation" from the state which to me still means autonomy. He points out that premiums for businesses have been reduced by 50% over the past 5 years. He also believes the economy is still not that great. Pinnacol tracks payrolls and they are not picking up. My impression and the statistics I've seen suggest that claims are down and have been declining for several years. In fact in my view it started even before the latest economic turndown. Are jobs being shipped overseas? What do you think? The problem this country may be facing is how do you remain a consumer when your income is down? But whether injured or unemployed we really should make a committment as a nation to retraining and vocational rehabilitation. If we are losing assembly line jobs we need to replace them with desk and tech and skilled trade jobs.

1 comment:

Ryan Grange said...

Thanks for the post, Richard. I'm a Pinnacol employee, and I agree with Ken that Pinnacol can better serve Colorado business and workers better as a true domestic insurance company. It will be interesting to see what the political climate is like next year with a new governor, etc.

To your second point, it seems to me that more companies are learning to make do with fewer employees, albeit working longer hours. These leaner organizations may be better for productivity and efficiency, but it's scary to think where all those unemployed folks will land.