State Farm insurance to shut Melville site

State Farm Mutual Insurance Cos. plans to close its Melville office and move some jobs from its New Hyde Park location as part of a consolidation with its operations upstate and in Pennsylvania, a company spokesman said Thursday.

State Farm's only two company offices here employ a total of about 400 people, said spokesman Doug Nadeau. The consolidation will cut that overall number by half. And all the employees the companies retain from those offices will work out of the New Hyde Park office.

Most of the Island jobs lost will move to upstate Ballston Spa, Nadeau said. And some will go to Pennsylvania.

"A vast majority" of employees affected were offered jobs in the other locations. But 110 employees in Melville and 93 in New Hyde Park declined to relocate, Nadeau said. The company disclosed those numbers in a mandatory state filing about the planned closing.

State Farm also has home-based employees here, or field agents, who could be affected by the consolidation, Nadeau said. But he declined to provide specifics.

"We will maintain both an operations center with employees on Long Island and will maintain field employees on Long Island," Nadeau said. "Long Island customers will not notice any changes."

The consolidation will begin Feb. 29 and continue through Sept. 30, 2013.

The 123 independent agents here aren't affected, he said.

Robert Hartwig, president and economist at the Manhattan-based Insurance Information Institute, a trade group, noted that State Farm is a "very strong company financially" but that the industry is extremely competitive and has been seeking ways to be more efficient.