Workforce numbers at IT giant Allstate NI have fallen by nearly 300 over approximately two years, its company accounts have shown.
There were 1,835 staff at US-owned business by the end of 2024, down 13% from 2,113 year before, according to its annual report and financial statements for the year.
It’s a steeper rate of decline than the year before, when numbers had dropped 3% from 2,186 in 2022.
Job losses were announced to staff at the company, which provides IT services to insurance giant the Allstate Corporation in the US and its subsidiaries, in October 2023.
As a result of the fall of 278 in its workforce, there was a corresponding decline in the company pay bill from £113.9m to £107.4m.
Remuneration for its five directors increased by 57% from £253,343 to £398,387 – within remuneration, the most substantial increase was in directors’ emoluments, up from £222,815 to £344,365.
Turnover at the company went from £132m to £122m, while pre-tax profits rose from £4.9m to £5.7m.
The company referenced the changes to the workforce in the report, stating: “To meet changing market demands, the company has transformed over the past two years into a smaller, more agile, highly-skilled organisation, empowered by a workforce equipped with cutting-edge digital and technology capabilities.
"This sustainable model and the associated digital skills investment ensures were are well-positioned to thrive in an environment defined by constant change and innovation.”
It said that the risks and uncertainties facing the company were mainly related to exchange rate volatility and access to talent. “The stability of the current workforce and access to talent maybe impacted by inflation and mobility. This is an uncertainty faced by all UK companies and particularly in the technology sector.”
The NI business is described in the report as a “leading digital centre of excellence”.
A strategic report signed by director Stephen McKeown affirmed its commitment to Northern Ireland.
“There is a cost advantage to doing business in Northern Ireland, the workforce is skilled and experienced and our technological capability is high.
"These are key factors in the ability of the company to help deliver Allstate’s transformative growth strategy.
"The company will continue to contribute to the global transformation and ongoing operational efficiencies. Investment in R&D will remain a priority.”
It added: “The directors believe that the company is well placed to manage its business risks successful despite the current uncertain economic outlook. The company has sufficient financial operations for normal operations.”
An interim dividend was paid in September 2024 of £4m, down from £9.2m in 2023. The directors did not recommend a final dividend.
Like other IT firms, the trend for hybrid working has led the company to reduce its office space.
In 2023, it gave up its 30,000 sq ft office in Strabane when the lease on the building expired. In April 2024, it opened a new Allstate NI office at the innovation centre at Catalyst in Derry.
It previously abandoned plans to move into the new 52,000 sq ft Ebrington Plaza building in the city.
During 2023, it put part of its £30m Belfast city centre office block up for rent. The offices opened at Mays Meadow next to Lanyon Place Station in 2018 and were described at the time as NI’s biggest new office development for 15 years.
by Loyal4Ulster
7 comments
And people still think their jobs are safe from LLMs, llmfao
AI is coming for us all. Recently worked for a different IT firm where many people were made redundant. Interestingly the CEO put out a statement not long after that saying they were no longer going to he hiring junior developers as AI could sufficiently replace the skillset of anyone at that level. That’s a worrying trend because people entering the field will find it really difficult to get work and those still in it will be trying to find ways to make it so they aren’t replaceable by AI.
So what’s the move here – that ai straight up replaces junior devs or that it increases efficiency at mid+ roles that the they can also do what a junior was doing on top of their own responsibilities. Anyone that has been using AI daily in a development role knows we are still a long way off replacing actual people with what it’s currently capable of
I’ve trained Allstate staff and we’ve hired loads leaving them. They have a lot of talented staff that they under pay, they also have a lot of staff that have managed to sit doing fuck all for years.
I work as a consultant and spit lots of work requirements into AI and it formulates its always better then I would form it… That sorts all my work out for the day.
What would take me all day now takes a couple of hours per day, leaving more time for meetings and planning. The world is changing before our very eyes and many sectors are in a bit of trouble it seems.
Wouldn’t touch Allstate with a barge pole. Have heard of these redundancies with them for years and this isn’t their first cull nor is it likely to be the last. All big firms are restructuring.. PWC, Citi, EY.. it’s probably the biggest restructure we’ll see in all firms simply due to how the world has changed since Covid. We work from home more, we work longer hours, we’re all more global.. firms can’t justify meeting rooms or 20 storey buildings now. I work in Citi and we all use to have to go off our desks to a physical room and dial in with a clunky speaker phone in 2020.. now it’s a zoom world 24/7 where you don’t really have an excuse to be offline even when sick unless you’re about to flatline. Corporate life.. And it’s not AI either.. I work in a non Dev middle management role and whilst we’re being pushed to use AI it’s probably 3-5 years away from doing anything significant. The amount of red tape in major orgs for AI is insane (and that is a good thing) so I’d calm down on the talking of replacing jobs lol. At the moment, AI is basically replacing Google for me… it’s crafting very specific mass audience emails and generating simple tables of financial product comparisons for example. I’d doubt they’re even letting AI generate/check code beyond select groups and very simple models but happy to be wrong on this for the coders amongst us (and I’m talking about your firms AI, as no company is allowed to plug & play ChatGPT, they all have to craft their own AI system albeit it will be driven by ChatGPT/Grok or whatever)
Wonder at what point did those creating AI realize what it would do to their jobs
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