´óÏó´«Ã½

Allstate has made redundancies in its Northern Ireland business as a result of wider restructuring.

The firm is one of the US's biggest insurance companies with the Northern Ireland operation providing technology support and development.

The company, which employs about 2,400 people in Northern Ireland, has not disclosed how many jobs are being lost.

In a statement to staff the local vice-president said "please know these types of decision are never taken lightly".

Stephen McKeown said there was a global transformation under way at the company, meaning changes across all countries and departments.

He added: "In some cases this means streamlining our operating model… as we've reviewed our staffing levels we've made the difficult decision to release some Allstate NI employees."

Allstate has also been cutting back on its office space in Northern Ireland as staff choose to work from home.

The company has vacated a building in Strabane in County Tyrone and is subletting part of its main Belfast office.