State Farm, Wells Fargo plan to lay off hundreds in Illinois – Chicago Tribune

State Farm and Wells Fargo are planning layoffs of employees downstate, the companies reported in mandatory state filings Tuesday.

Insurance giant State Farm, which is headquartered in Bloomington, told the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity it would eliminate 451 positions at the end of March. Wells Fargo reported the layoff of 140 workers in Springfield.

Chris Pilcic, a spokesperson for State Farm, said the company’s filing stemmed from its decision in January to outsource its IT help desk and infrastructure services work to an outside technology company, HCLTech.

“Many of these employees have been offered opportunities to join HCLTech in similar roles with similar work arrangements in their current locations supporting State Farm,” Pilcic said. He did not say how many employees had been offered positions.

Ty Morrison, a spokesperson for Wells Fargo, said all 140 Springfield employees whose jobs are being eliminated work in the company’s correspondent business, which purchases loans originated by other financial institutions. The affected employees work in home lending, Morrison said. As of last year, the San Francisco-based company had about 2,795 employees in Illinois.

Morrison said the bank plans to notify affected employees over the next several months, through the third quarter ending in September.

In a January news release, Wells Fargo announced plans to eliminate its correspondent business.

“Mortgage is an important relationship product, and our goal is to continue to be the primary mortgage lender to Wells Fargo bank customers as well as minority homebuyers. We are making the decision to continue to reduce risk in the mortgage business by reducing its size and narrowing its focus,” Kleber Santos, the company’s CEO of consumer lending, said in a statement at the time.

The Illinois layoffs were reported in accordance with the Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires large employers to tell the state in advance when they plan mass layoffs or plant closures.

State Farm and Wells Fargo are the latest companies to announce job cuts this week: Groupon said it would lay off 500 people, in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday, a number that could represent up to 20% of its workforce. Electric truck manufacturer Rivian said Wednesday it would lay off 6% of its workforce, including a small number of nonmanufacturing employees at its assembly plant in downstate Normal.

Tech giants have led the way in job cuts, with companies such as Meta, Twitter and Amazon all announcing layoffs last fall.