Employer-Paid

More employers are finding themselves disconnected to employees, reveals a recent survey on employee performance and retention conducted by Express Employment Professionals.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's administration said Wednesday it plans to save the state money by requiring unionized state workers to take at least four unpaid furlough days off and by introducing legislation requiring them to contribute to their defined benefit retirement plans if they want to keep them.

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell sharply last week, an encouraging sign that layoffs are easing.

Twenty-five percent of employers say they have little or no understanding of specialty pharmacy benefits while 53 percent say they have just a moderate understanding, according to a recent survey by the nonprofit Midwest Business Group on Health.

Iowa employers are growing more pessimistic than they were three months ago, finds the fourth-quarter results of the Hamilton Hiring Survey.

Annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage in 2011 increased to $15,073, a 9 percent jump from 2010, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust 2011 Employer Health Benefits Survey.