10 Largest Companies on Obama's Jobs Council Lost 91K Jobs

Oct. 12, 2011 — -- Members of President Obama's jobs council convened on Tuesday in Pittsburgh, discussing ways to create jobs amid their own lukewarm record of job creation.

An analysis by ABC News found that the 10 largest companies represented on the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness have lost some 91,206 jobs since January 2009.

The purpose of President Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness is "to provide non-partisan advice to the president on continuing to strengthen the nation's economy and ensure the competitiveness of the United States and on ways to create jobs, opportunity, and prosperity for the American people."

The council's meeting came just as the president's $447 billion jobs bill was defeated in the Senate Tuesday.

On Monday evening, the jobs council submitted a report to the president called "Taking Action, Building Confidence," stating "there is no one "silver bullet" to create jobs." The group compiled "a series of targeted proposals that can meaningfully accelerate job creation while beginning to rebuild America's competitiveness," including investing aggressively in infrastructure and energy and targeting high-growth enterprises that create new jobs such as startups and small firms.

The jobs council said in its report that startups and small firms are "the key to U.S. job growth." For the past 30 years, high-growth enterprises less than five years old have created 40 million net new jobs, accounting for all the net new job creation in the country, according to the council.

The 27 non-governmental executives, advocates and academics of the president's jobs council are leaders in their field though not all have directly "created" jobs. Many of them work for large corporations, which have jettisoned employees in the economic downturn that began in 2008 with the financial crisis.

But not all of them work at companies that are cutting jobs. Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook since March 2008, could get high marks on her jobs report card. Facebook, based in Palo Alto, Calif., employs nearly 3,000 people and has grown headcount by 22 percent in the past six months. The company has grown 55 percent in the past year, according to a company spokeswoman.

John Doerr, venture capitalist of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in Menlo Park, Calif., could also potentially get high marks. When asked how many jobs the company's funds may have created, a spokeswoman said the VC-firm has invested in more than 50 companies since January 2009.

Steve Case, former CEO of AOL and CEO of investment firm Revolution LLC, also appears to be involved in job creation these days, though many analysts say his 2001 merger of AOL with Time Warner was a failure. Allyson Burns, spokeswoman for Revolution LLC, said the firm "has backed more than a dozen entrepreneurs who have created thousands of new jobs in the past two years alone."

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, represented by CEO Matthew Rose on the jobs council, had 6,000 hires since 2010 and had a 5 percent increase in net new jobs since January 2009. John Ambler, spokesman for the company, said some of those jobs were due to attrition and replacing retired employees.

Permac Industries now has 38 employees, from 21 employees in 2009, according to CEO Darlene Miller, a member of the jobs council.

Stephen Bronars, chief economist with Welch Consulting, said large, successful companies can have the most difficulty adding jobs, especially in a tough economy. From January 2009 to December 2010 the U.S. economy lost about half a million jobs. The unemployment rate is 9.1 percent and has changed little since January.

"As a general point, big companies tend to not grow as much as smaller ones unless they acquire one. Once you're already big it's hard to grow," he said.

Bronars said the 10 largest companies represented on the jobs council have performed better than other companies in their industries. Data compiled from S&P Capital IQ and filings from the Securities and Exchange Commission show the largest 10 companies represented on the jobs council have lost about 91,206 employees or jobs since January 2009.

Here are the net jobs added from around January 2009 by the 10 largest companies -- by sales -- represented by executives on the jobs council, compiled by S&P Capital IQ.

1. General Electric (GE): -19,000 jobs

2010 Sales: $149.1 billion

Jeffrey Immelt, CEO

At the end of 2010, General Electric and its affiliates employed about 133,000 people in the U.S., down from 134,000 in 2009 and 152,000 in 2008, according to its annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission from Feb. 25.

But a company spokesman said the annual filing figures can be misleading without describing what companies GE may have sold. The sale of NBC-Universal to Comcast in early 2011, for example, will result in GE's employment for this year to appear flat compared to 2010. However, GE will hire about 15,000 people in the country in 2011, according to the spokesman.

In 2009, GE announced the creation of 8,000 new U.S, jobs, 7,000 of which are industrial jobs, the spokesman said.

Note: $50 billion of GE's revenue comes from Investments as opposed to Sales of Goods and Services.

2. Citigroup (C): -62,800 jobs

2010 Sales: $111.5 billion

Richard Parsons, board chairman

On December 31, 2010, Citi had approximately 260,000 full-time employees compared with approximately 265,300 full-time employees in December 31, 2009.

In December 31, 2008, Citi had approximately 322,800 full-time and 4,100 part-time employees.

3. Procter & Gamble (PG): -3,000 jobs (global)

2010 Sales: $78.9 billion

The company currently has 129,000 employees globally. According to the consumer products company's annual SEC filing from June 30, 2010, the company had 127,000 jobs. That figure is down from 132,000 in June 2009 and 135,000 in June 2008.

"Our enrollment fluctuates -- up and down -- based upon divestitures and acquisitions, new plants we're building around the world, and normal attrition," Christine Wever, Procter & Gamble Company spokeswoman, said. "P&G has maintained hiring during the economic downturn, and we will continue to recruit and hire at the right levels for our business each year."

Wever said that "for competitive reasons," the company does not specify employment numbers in the U.S., but she said Procter & Gamble has about 38,000 employees in North America.

4. Boeing (BA): -1,700 jobs

2010 Sales: $64.3 billion

W. James McNerney Jr., CEO

A spokesman said the company had a net gain of 8,850 American jobs nationwide this year and has just over 170,0000 employees, leading to a net gain in jobs since January 2009.

According to the company's SEC filings, the total workforce level on December 31, 2010 rose to 160,500 from 157,100 on December 31, 2009. Boeing's total workforce on December 31, 2008 was 162,200.

5. UBS Americas: -5,331 jobs

2010 Sales, UBS AG: $47.6 billion

Robert Wolf, CEO of UBS Americas

The company reported 22,031 U.S. employees on Dec. 31, 2010, down from 22,702 employees in Dec. 31, 2009. In Dec. 31, 2008, the company reported 27,362.

Capital IQ reported revenue for UBS AG, not UBS Americas. UBS Americas is not listed and does not report results.

6. Intel (INTC): +3,425 jobs

2010 Sales: $43.6 billion

Paul Otellini, CEO

A company spokeswoman reported there has been an increase of 12,600 in employee headcount from the end of 2008.

At the end of 2008, Intel had approximately 83,900 employees worldwide, with more than 50 percent, or 41,950, of them in the U.S. As of December 26, 2009, Intel had 79,800 employees worldwide, with 55 percent, or 43,890, of those employees located in the U.S. As of December 25, 2010, the company had 82,500 employees worldwide, with approximately 55 percent, or 45,375, of those employees located in the U.S.

As of the second quarter of 2011, the company had 96,500 total employees. However, this includes acquisitions and does not include the thousands of current construction jobs at Intel's Arizona and Oregon facilities, said the spokeswoman.

7. Comcast (CMCSA): +2,000 jobs

2010 Sales: $37.9 billion

Brian Roberts, CEO

As of December 31, 2010, Comcast had 102,000 employees, including part-time employees, up from around 101,000 employees, including part-time employees the previous year.

As of December 31, 2008, Comcast had 100,000 employees, including part-timers, according to its SEC filings.

A company spokesman said Comcast currently has 4,800 job openings.

8. DuPont (DD): +0 jobs

2010 Sales: $32.1 billion

Ellen Kullman, CEO

S&P Capital IQ reported 60,000 DuPont employees in 2010, up from 58,000 in 2009. DuPont had 60,000 jobs in 2008, according to S&P Capital IQ.

"Today, DuPont has more U.S. employees than it did in 2004," Tara Stewart, DuPont spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement to ABC News. "In fact, we've created about 1,000 jobs in U.S. as a result of capacity expansions and investments in Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee in 2011 alone. Year to date, our U.S. hiring is more than double this time last year. DuPont continues to hire in the U.S as we work to meet the growing demands for food, energy and protection here and around the world."

9. American Express (AXP): -5,000 jobs

2010 Sales: $30.2 billion

Kenneth Chenault, CEO

According to the company's annual SEC filing, American Express had 61,000 employees on December 31, 2010, up from about 58,300 employees on December 31, 2009. American Express had around 66,000 employees on December 31, 2008.

American Express did not immediately return a request for comment.

10. Xerox (XRX): +200 jobs

2010 Sales: $21.6 billion

Ursula Burns, CEO

Xerox' current U.S. employment is 75,400, as of the end of the second quarter of 2011. A company spokesman for Xerox said U.S. employment at the end of 2009 was 31,420.

The main source of the increase is Xerox's purchase of Affiliated Computer Services, which closed in Feb. 2010, skewing the company's employment numbers. ACS' headcount in 2009 was around 74,000, according to S&P Capital IQ.

Total US Xerox employment at end of the first quarter of 2010, the first quarter with ACS numbers included, was 75,200.

Bill McKee, a Xerox spokesman, said the company announced 3,000 new jobs, mostly for ACS call centers in over eight locations around the US.

According to Xerox's SEC filing, as of Dec. 31, 2010 the company had 136,500 direct employees.

During 2010 Xerox recorded $470 million of severance costs related to headcount reductions of about 9,000 employees, associated equally to North America and Europe, with approximately 20 percent related to the company's developing market countries.