For health insurance giant Elevance Health, the U.S. labor market still looks good.
Company CEO Gail Boudreaux discussed employers' strength today during a conference call the company held to go over results for the second quarter with securities analysts.
"We're really seeing employers still expanding their workforce and looking for more benefits to maintain the strength of their workforce," Boudreaux said. "We haven't seen any pullback yet in terms of our employer populations across any of the sized segments that we serve."
Eventually, that could change, she said. But at this stage, employers' concerns seem to be "more inflation-based than employment-based," Boudreaux said. "And employers are still looking for strong solutions."
What It Means
One of the factors the Federal Reserve Board considers when deciding what to do about interest rates is the job market.
If employers are still hiring, and still worrying about inflation, that might firm up Fed members' support for moving ahead with efforts to push interest rates higher.
Many economists believe that increasing interest rates can help cool inflation by reducing the amount of money that individuals and businesses can use to pay for purchases.
The Name
Elevance Health is the new holding company name for Anthem. The Indianapolis-based company now provides or administers major medical coverage for more than 1 in every 7 U.S. residents.
The company changed its top-level corporate name in June and also realigned other brands. It's still using the Anthem name for its health insurance operations.
"Our simplified brand architecture will streamline our brand portfolio, reduce complexities, and reinforce our evolution as an organization delivering solutions beyond health insurance," Boudreaux said.
The company's new stock symbol is "ELV."
As of Wednesday, the SEC's Edgar filing library was still listing Elevance filings under the old "ANTM" stock symbol.
