Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

MetLife has recently announced it plans to move 2,600 jobs to North Carolina. The company has not yet announced how many jobs will be lost in Bloomfield, but it has announced that it will close its offices in Lowell, Mass., Somerset, N.J., and Aliso Viejo, Calif. It will reduce its workforce in Bloomfield, Boston, Irvine, Calif., Johnstown, Pa., and Warwick, R.I. What’s it all mean? A company spokesman has said that MetLife is trying to save money by consolidating operations. Why North Carolina rather than, say, Bridgeport Connecticut?

The good news is that the bad news of several weeks past wasn’t so bad after all. One of Connecticut’s number crunchers had said that job growth in the state -- which seems incapable of shaking a bad bout of recession -- was anemic. But the numbers, as it turned out, were mistaken. In fact, job growth was three times greater than had been reported. Eureka! The bad news is that the increase in job growth will be much diminished when MetLife, as a result of its acquisition of Travelers Life & Annuity, throws a thousand or more of its Connecticut employees out of the plane without a parachute. Once again, a promising merger has resulted in – What do they call it now? – mass firings. Wait, that language seems too blunt, too raw. How about this: The acquisition and merger has resulted in downsizings? Downsized employees will feel less put upon with the velvet-gloved verbiage. The good news is that the bigwigs at Snoopy’s company plan to sit down and hash the matter over with Governor Jo...