Good day ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the second quarter 2008 Employers Holdings, Inc. earnings conference call. (Operator instructions) I would now like to turn the presentation over to your host for today’s call, Ms. Vicki Erickson, Vice President of Investor Relations; please proceed.

Welcome everyone to the second quarter 2008 earnings call for Employers Holdings, Inc. After the close of market yesterday we announced our second quarter 2008 earnings results. We will file our Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission today. These materials or will be posted and may be accessed on the company’s website www.employers.com. Today’s call is being recorded and webcast from the Investor Relations section of our website where a replay will be available following the call. Representing the company on the call today are Douglas Dirks, our Chief Executive Officer and Rick Yocke, our Chief Financial Officer. Marty Welch, the President and Chief Operating Officer of our insurance subsidiaries is not with us today. He is at his son’s wedding this weekend so Douglas and Rick will take any questions you may have for Marty. Before I turn the call over to Douglas, I would like to remind everyone that statements made during this conference call that are not based on historical fact are considered forward-looking statements. These statements are made in reliance on the Safe Harbor Provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although we believe the expectations expressed in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to be materially different from our expectations, including the risks set forth in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All remarks made during the call are current at the time of the call and will not be updated to reflect subsequent material developments. I’d again like to remind you that we use a non-GAAP metric that excludes the impact of the 1999 loss portfolio transfer or LPT. This metric is defined in our earnings press release available on our website. Now I will turn the call over to Douglas.

Thanks Vicki, hello everyone and thank you for joining us today. Before we begin our recap of the second quarter and six month results, I would like to provide you with a status update on our acquisition of AmCOMP Incorporated. As you know in January we announced the executive of a definitive merger agreement to acquire AmCOMP. The acquisition has been delayed as AmCOMP continues to work with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation on issues related to excessive profits as defined under Florida law. We believe that the rationale for this acquisition remains valid and we believe that the acquisition of AmCOMP is still an excellent strategic fit for us. The acquisition will provide us with financial benefits including a larger and more diversified earnings base, along with new growth opportunities that would extend well beyond our current Western region focus. The merger agreement expires on October 31, 2008 unless the date is extended by mutual agreement of the parties. On May 23, 2008 AmCOMP announced that it had received a Notice of Intent to Issue order to return excess profit from the FOIR indicating on a preliminary basis following its review of data submitted by AmCOMP on June 22, 2007, for accident years 2003, 2004, and 2005. Florida excess profits in the amount of approximately $11.7 million had been realized by AmCOMP and are required to be returned to policy holders. On June 9, 2008 AmCOMP announced that its insurance subsidiaries, AmCOMP Assurance Corporation and AmCOMP Preferred Insurance Company, filed a petition for administrative hearing involving disputed issues of fact with FOIR challenging the notice. On June 29, 2008 AmCOMP made its annual filing related to Florida excessive profits with the FOIR for the accident years 2004, 2005, and 2006. Completion of the merger is subject to the…

Thanks Douglas, in the second quarter of this year our combined ratio was 77% on a GAAP basis and 83.2% before the LPT. Year-to-date our combined ratio was 80% on a GAAP basis and 86.3% before the LPT. Our quarterly combined ratio increased slightly in 2008 compared with 2007 as our underwriting and other operating expense ratio was pressured by declines in premium. Our six month GAAP combined ratio was essentially flat relative to the same period last year. Our loss and LAE ratios before the LPT improved in the second quarter and the first six months of this year compared to the same periods last year. We review and revise our loss reserve estimates quarterly for both prior accident years and the current accident year. Based on new information changes in estimates are reflected in the period in which the changes are made. The second quarter’s loss in LAE ratio before the LPT improved to 38.9% in 2008 from 39.6% in 2007. The period-over-period improvement for the quarter was primarily the result of a reduction in the current year’s loss estimate. Favorable development of $16.9 million in this year’s second quarter was $3.5 million lower then in the second quarter of last year. The losses in LAE for the first six months decreased period-over-period due to a reduction in the current year’s loss estimate and lower net earned premiums. Favorable development in the first six months of 2008 was $28.3 million compared with $36 million in the same period in 2007. Favorable prior accident year development in the second quarter represents 23 percentage points on the combined ratio and in the first six months of the year 19 points on the combined ratio. Our second quarter underwriting and other operating expense ratio was 31.1% and 29.9% for the first…

Thanks Rick, in summary while current market dynamics continue to impact premium generation and to a lesser extent, our investment income, we are see strong results in our in-force policy count growth and continuing but lower favorable loss reserve development. We will continue to leverage our experience and expertise to pursue opportunities for profitable growth while maintaining our focus on underwriting discipline to protect the quality and profitability of our book of business. Thank you for joining us this morning. We are now ready for your questions.

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Matthew Carletti – Fox Pitt Kelton Matthew Carletti – Fox Pitt Kelton: You commented on tourism and construction hurting payrolls, particularly Nevada, do you have or can you provide us payroll in-force growth year-over-year?

We can’t do that and the reason why is there’s a unique provision of Nevada law that caps payrolls for workers' compensation and so the best we can do is give you anecdotal information and anecdotal information would suggest that within the construction classes, we’re seeing declines in payroll perhaps as much as 50% and in the tourism classes perhaps 10% to 12%. Matthew Carletti – Fox Pitt Kelton: On the topic of capital management and share repurchase, I know there’s been a lot going on with AmCOMP in that activity has been slow year-to-date I think $7 million repurchased year-to-date on a $100 authorization that covered 18 months, is that, have you been blacked out a bit, or has that been more of a choice based on where the stock’s trade?

In the first quarter of the year, first three months, we did have some blackout in terms of when we put the program into affect from the authorization. We’ve also proceeded cautiously under 10B5, given the impending acquisition and our focus on conserving capital until we’re exactly sure what we’re going to need. Matthew Carletti – Fox Pitt Kelton: On market competition have you seen anything change in particular, for the better or for the worse say since last quarter?

Let’s start with California; I really can’t say that we’ve observed any significant changes in the competitive environment in California. And second largest market in Nevada, I think I would say the same thing that the competitors seemed to have staked out their territory and although we’ve seen maybe a very slight decline in retention, it’s difficult to attribute that to a significant change in the competitive environment.

Your next question comes from the line of [Eric Donberg] – Unidentified Company [Eric Donberg] – Unidentified Company: Just wanted greater clarity in terms of what you’re doing on the buyback, I don’t quite understand why you’re not being more aggressive, I understand the blackout earlier this year, but with the $200 million dividend to holding co. and then $75 million additional, that’s $275 million plus you have $150 million at a very attractive rate in the secured, why wouldn’t you take advantage of the current price particularly given how well you’re operating and particularly given that you were buying stock at $20, $21 last summer?

Well as I mentioned we’ve kept a careful eye on our cash flow as well as our capital and we’re looking out, when we talk about cash flow, we’re looking out through almost mid next year, looking at the timing of future dividends coming up from the insurance subsidiaries and we want to make sure before we expend capital that we’ve adequately planned and confirmed that our cash flow is what we believe it will be. So as I’ve said, been conservative, cautious, but we remain committed to the share repurchase that was authorized. [Eric Donberg] – Unidentified Company: Should we expect that with the blackout period probably offer a bit during August that you’ll reset the 10B5 at potentially more aggressive levels then you’ve had set for the last few months?

I don’t think I would comment on that at this point in time. [Eric Donberg] – Unidentified Company: Does it concern you at all that your ROEs are quite depressed because of your excess capitalization, is that something you’d like to work on to appease some of your shareholders?

When we initially did the public offering and ever since there’s been really no change in our strategy. Our capital management strategy is to invest in the operation first, we continue to do that. Second to seek opportunistic acquisitions, we have done that. We have not yet been successful in closing our first transaction but hopefully we’ll be able to do that and then finally, to manage the capital through dividends and share repurchases. Now it’s really a combination of those and a combination of the market environment that we find ourselves in and consideration of what other uses of capital we may have in the future. So there really is no change in our strategy and you shouldn’t read anything into the rate at which we’re repurchasing shares to suggest something other then those three items. [Eric Donberg] – Unidentified Company: Is it fair to expect that say post the AmCOMP closure assuming it does close, that the rate may pick up and that you intend to actually fulfill the authorization by next June?

I’m going to have to give you the same answer, it’s a combination of those three strategies and if and when we make a change in that, you will all be well aware of it.

There are no further questions at this time; I would like to turn it back over to Douglas Dirks for any closing remarks.

Thank you all for joining our call this morning and we look forward to speaking with you again after the close of the third quarter. Thanks.