You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: Presenting today on the call will be Kathy Antonello, our Chief Executive Officer; and Mike Paquette, our Chief Financial Officer.
These statements are made in reliance on the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
All remarks made during the call are current only at the time of the call and will not be updated to reflect subsequent developments.
The company also uses its website as a means of disclosing material nonpublic information and for complying with disclosure obligation under the SEC's regulation FD.
Such disclosures will be included in the Investors section of the company's website.
Employers has performed well throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and the first quarter of 2021 was no exception.
While our top line was adversely impacted early in the first quarter by a meaningful year-over-year decrease in new business premium, we are very encouraged by the strength of our writings in March and April, including those of Cerity.
The recent improvement in submissions, quotes and binds, is directly correlated with increased hiring and expanded reopenings across most states.
With respect to our renewal book, our policy retention rate remained very strong at 94% for the quarter.
This was offset to some degree by lower average policy sizes and modest rate decreases.
And overall, our renewal premium was down 11% on a year-over-year basis.
We closed the quarter with another record number of policies in force, which demonstrates that our policyholders are enduring the pandemic, and small businesses are shopping for workers' compensation coverage.
As widespread vaccination continues and the labor market improves, we are optimistic that rising payrolls will serve to increase premium.
In support of this anticipated recovery, we have continued to pursue and advance the significant investments we've made in delivering a superior customer experience for our agents.
Due to declines in both frequency and severity for lost time claims, we've lowered our current accident year loss and LAE ratio on voluntary business to 63.6% 63.9%, down from 65.5% a year ago and 64.3% at year-end.
In addition, we continue to experience favorable loss reserve development in nearly every prior accident year.
Regarding our expenses, several first quarter events are worth noting.
We underwent a reduction in force, which impacted approximately 7% of our workforce.
We also said fond farewells to a few of our executives, including our former CEO, and subsequently realigned the organization to increase efficiency and generate cost savings.
As a result, our first quarter underwriting and general and administrative expenses of $46.6 million will be the high watermark for 2021, and you will see immediate and significant expense reductions for the remainder of the year.
With that, Mike will now provide a further discussion of our financial results, and then I will return to provide my closing remarks.
During the quarter, we delivered a 4.8% annualized return on adjusted equity and a combined ratio of 93.9% within our largest operating segment employers.
However, these favorable operating results were somewhat muted by our lower top line and net unrealized investment losses on our fixed maturity investments.
Our net premiums earned were $134 million, a decrease of 20% year-over-year.
The decrease was due to lower written premiums, as Kathy mentioned, as well as a reduction in our estimated final audit accruals to reflect the premium that we expect to return to our policyholders as a result of lower payrolls.
Our losses and loss adjustment expenses were $70 million, a decrease of 33%.
The company recognized $13 million of favorable prior year loss reserve development on its voluntary business during the quarter, which related primarily to accident years 2017 and prior versus $3 million of favorable prior year loss reserve development a year ago.
Commission expenses were $17 million, a decrease of 21%.
That decrease was primarily due to lower earned premiums.
Underwriting and general and administrative expenses were $47 million, largely unchanged from a year ago.
During the first quarter, we recognized a onetime $2.3 million acceleration in share-based compensation in connection with the retirement of our former CEO, Doug Dirks, Also, as Kathy mentioned previously, future quarters will reflect an immediate reduction in expenses from actions taken and completed during the first quarter.
Our other expenses were $2.9 million, representing employee severance costs associated with our first quarter 2021 reduction in force.
This action was taken to better align our expenses with our current levels of revenue.
From a reporting segment perspective, our Employers segment had underwriting income of $8 million for the quarter versus $1 million a year ago, and its combined ratios were 93.9% and 99.5%, respectively.
Our Cerity segment had an underwriting loss of $4 million for the quarter, consistent with its underwriting loss a year ago.
However, Cerity's premium writings have increased in recent months, which Kathy will address in her final remarks.
Our net investment income was $18 million for the quarter, down 8%.
The decrease was primarily due to lower interest rates year-over-year, which impacted bond yields.
At quarter end, our fixed maturities had a duration of 3.8 and an average credit quality of A+, and our equity securities and other investments represented 10% of our total investment portfolio.
Our net income this quarter was favorably impacted by $8 million of after-tax unrealized gains from equity securities and other investments, which are reflected on our income statement.
Conversely, our shareholders' equity and book value per share this quarter were each unfavorably impacted by $36 million of after-tax unrealized losses from fixed maturity securities, which are reflected on our balance sheet.
And finally, during the quarter, we repurchased $10 million of our common stock at an average price of $32.21 per share, and our remaining share repurchase authority currently stands at just under $19 million.
As Mike mentioned, our Cerity operating segment, which offers digital workers' compensation insurance solutions directly to consumers, is gaining traction and has written $0.5 million in premium thus far in 2021.
While the low- to medium-hazard direct-to-consumer market is relatively immature, and Cerity is an early entrant in this space, we believe that its technological and intellectual capabilities will support our future growth initiatives and provide immediate access to workers' compensation insurance for those customers seeking an online experience.
I am excited and proud to lead this remarkable organization.
And my primary goal for the company in 2021 remains unchanged.
As we prepare to fully capitalize on the upcoming labor market improvement, we will continue to maintain underwriting discipline and actively manage our expenses.
Our balance sheet and capital position are very strong and are highly supportive of these initiatives.
Employers is in a unique spot.
As a monoline workers' compensation rider specializing in America's small businesses, we can react to these trends appropriately and efficiently and are confident that we are well positioned for continued success.
And with that, operator, we will now take questions.

user
qtrly net premiums earned of $133.9 million, down 20% year-over-year.

assistant