Lincoln National Corp. has cut 37 jobs from its local workforce, a spokesman confirmed late Thursday.
The positions were a portion of about 130 jobs cut across all of the Radnor, Pa.-based financial services provider’s locations, spokesman Michael Arcaro said.
The total job cuts represent about 1.5 percent of Lincoln’s total workforce. About 2 percent of Fort Wayne’s 2,043 workers were affected. The company has offered affected workers severance and job search assistance.
The decision was made after a strategic review of the company, which was founded in Fort Wayne in 1905.
Lincoln, like other financial services companies, manages investment and annuity accounts invested in the stock market. The company, which charges a percentage fee for its services, collects more money when the balances in clients’ accounts rise, tying Lincoln’s performance closely to the stock markets’.
Lincoln’s executives have a responsibility to shareholders to enhance the company, Arcaro said. He declined to say whether the economy was a factor in the decision.
Dennis Glass, Lincoln’s president and CEO, hinted at future workforce reductions Aug. 1 in comments that accompanied the company’s most recent earnings report.
Lincoln posted second-quarter earnings of $324 million, or $1.10 per diluted common share, a 7 percent increase from the $304 million, or 95 cents a share, posted for the same three months of 2011.
But Glass didn’t like the uncertainty that has plagued markets and investors.
“Given the macroeconomic environment is likely to remain unsettled, we will continue to take aggressive, proactive steps to control costs, manage capital and returns, and make strategic investments to build our business,” he said in a written statement.
Salaries are the company’s largest cost of doing business.
Although the company reported earnings for its two most recent quarters, Lincoln posted a loss of $514 million for the fourth quarter of 2011, when it took a $747 million non-cash goodwill impairment charge related to the life insurance and media business.
Lincoln’s stock closed at $24.16, up 99 cents, Thursday in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The spokesman confirmed the job cuts after markets closed.
