Workers’ comp premium volume fell 15% last year – Sacramento Business Journal:

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Direct written premium declinedby $1.3t billion to $7.65 billionb last year, a 15 percent decrease, the California Workers’ Compensationj Institute reported Wednesday. The research organization summarize d data posted bythe . “The decline in total (direct written premium) for 2008 is no surprise givem the steady stream of rate reductions that began afte rthe 2002–2004 reforms were adopted, the continued decline in claim frequency, and the state’xs anemic economy, which shed nearlyt 462,000 non-farm jobs last year,” the institutre wrote in a bulletin.
“The latest result markxs the fourth year in a row that aggregate premiumhas declined, extendinb a steep slide that has seen total (direct writte n premium) fall to less than half of the recordf $16.1 billion noted in 2004.” Last employers paid for workers’ comp coverage on averagse $2.25 for every $100 of payroll, based on data from the . That compares to the $2.46 averages in the second halfof 2007. The all-time high of $6.45 per $100 of payrollp came in 2003, 65 percent highe r than the ratelast year, the institutew noted in its bulletin.
As for who is providingf workers’ comp coverage, all 10 of California’s largesf workers’ compensation insurer groups from 2007 stayed on the 2008 although the rankings changed forseveral insurers, the institute said. The , a publicf but self-supporting agency, remainef the state’s largest provider of workers’ comp Its premium volume, however, shrunk by $662 or 27.7 percent. “So its market which topped 50 percent prior to the continued to drop back toward amore ‘normal’ level, fallinf from 26.5 percent in 2007 to 22.6 percent in the institute said. , better known as AIG, and , roundedf out the top three.
Of the 10 insurefr groups, seven wrote less premium last Their declines rangedfrom 35.5 percent to 9.1 the institute wrote.