By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1 business commentator
Dallas, TX – Every year the Dallas Business Journal compiles many lists that assist us in getting a better view of the Dallas/Fort Worth business landscape. You might be interested in their most recent list, The Largest Metroplex Private-Sector Employers. So, who are these companies and how has this list changed from last year? I'm Maxine Shapiro with KERA Marketplace Middays.
There's no surprise who ranked number one on this list for the last two years - AMR, parent company to American Airlines. Now there was a definite change in their employee count. Locally, they lost over 2,000 employees and nationally there was the same 2,000 drop but worldwide, AMR's employee count went up by almost 4,000 employees. I'm going to need to find where in the world they were hiring.
Second on the list of Largest Metroplex Private-Sector Employers is Wal-Mart. And guess what? Locally, they increased their staff by about 2,000 employees. Verizon fell from third to fourth, giving way to now third-ranked SBC Southwestern Bell. SBC added on about 1400 employees over the last year. And tied at fourth with Verizon is the new kid on the block, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company. In the past year, they've hired 14,000 people to help build that new bomber. A little note here - although it's just lovely that so many people in the Fort Worth area are now employed, the building of military equipment does not directly contribute to the economy. You and I do not go out and buy military equipment nor does any other corporation have the need for it. But it's good that so many people are employed.
A few other obvious changes - WorldCom is off the list. Alcatel USA was fifteenth last year. They changed their name and service and now just Alcatel is twenty-fifth, Radio Shack is new on the list, and Southwest Airlines and Blockbuster moved up a few notches though their employee count remained the same. Not the prettiest of pictures but an accurate one. For KERA Marketplace Middays, I'm Maxine Shapiro.
Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 P.M.