Corporate upsizers.
Meyerson, Adam
The American economy has created 9.5 million new jobs in the last
four years, 660,000 in just the first quarter of 1996. Unemployment has
tumbled from 7.8 percent to 5.4 percent. California has pulled itself
out of recession. In Wisconsin and Michigan, tinder conservative
governors, unemployment has fallen to modern lows of 3.6 percent and 4.6
percent.
So what's the big economic story on the campaign trail and in
the national press? Downsizing. Economic insecurity. The collapse of
communities buffeted by plant closings. The "greed" of
corporations whose stock prices go up as their payrolls go down.
If so many more Americans have jobs, surely someone must be hiring.
And in fact, thousands of American firms are "upsizing - adding to
their payrolls, often hiring the experienced talent laid off by others.
This is an extraordinary period of creativity and entrepreneurship in
the American economy, and jobseekers are benefiting.
Wal-Mart, the republic's largest employer, added 41,000 new
jobs in the U.S. last year - roughly the same number that AT&T is
eliminating over three years. These are good jobs, with medical benefits
for all full-time employees, profit-sharing, and tremendous
opportunities for advancement. Thousands of Wal-Mart
"associates," as all employees from executives to stockboys
are called, have become wealthy thanks to their purchases of company
stock. What does it say about the American press that the AT&T
downsizing has received 10 times the attention paid to Wal-Mmart's
upsizing?
Wal-Mart's American payroll has grown from 270,000 jobs to
nearly 630,000 over the last five years. With each new store, the
Arkansas-based retailer adds 150 to 400 jobs. The press focuses on
community opposition to new Wal-Mart store - usually led by competitors
who charge higher prices - while ignoring the equally important story of
job creation.
Wal-Mart isn't the only retailer massively expanding its
payrolls. America has the most competitive, most efficient, and most
innovative retailing and distribution industry in the world. Circuit
City electronics stores, Gap clothing stores, and Revco drugstores are
just a few of the growing chains that are building on their competitive
strength to create thousands of new jobs.
Lowe's, a chain of home-improvement stores based in North
Wilkesboro, North Carolina, has tripled its payroll in the last five
years, from 16,000 to 45,000. Last year Lowe's opened 55 new
stores, and every time it opens a store it hires 150 to 200 associates.
Employees own 20 percent of the company's stock, and enjoy greater
wealth as well as promotion opportunities as their company expands.
But retailing is hardly the only industry seeing rapid expansions
of payrolls. As IBM and AT&T lay people off, other
telecommunications and computer companies are energetically hiring.
Since 1988, Motorola, the cellular-phone and microprocessor giant, has
added 20,000 in the United States. Last year alone, its American
employment rolls expanded by more than 5,000. Microprocessor wizard
Intel created 9,800 new American jobs last year. The U.S. payroll at
scientific-instrument-maker Hewlett-Packard has risen to more than
60,000, up from 53,000 in 1991. Last year sales rose by 48 percent at
Dell, which bypasses stores and sells computers directly to the
consumer; its U.S.-based marketing, manufacturing, and technical support
staff expanded by 1,100.
The explosion of entrepreneurial energy in business services is
creating phenomenal job and advancement opportunities. Consider Alco
Standard, a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, firm that is growing by leaps and
bounds as it helps companies save money on their paperwork. Owner of
Unisource, the largest distributor of paper and paper-supply systems to
American business, Alco Standard also owns Ikon Office Solutions, a
giant in copying, fax, and computer-network services for corporate
offices. In less than two years, Alco's U.S. employment has risen
from 30,000 to more than 40,000 (due in part to acquisitions, but mostly
to internal expansion).
Even many Rust Belt industries are shaking off their rust and
showing new vigor in job markets. The hourly U.S. payroll at Ford Motor
Co. rose by 1,300 last year, although there was no increase in salaried
white-collar employment - in recognition, perhaps, that too many
American companies have been a little top-heavy in middle management.
U.S. employment at autoparts maker Dana Corp. has risen by 5,000 over
the last two years.
Forbes reports that employment rose by 240,000 in 1995 at the 787
companies in the "Forbes 500s - the top American companies in
sales, profits, assets, and market value. Even more dramatic, almost 200
of these companies increased their payrolls by at least 1,000 employees
last year. Granted, these are global figures, and some of these payroll
expansions were overseas. Also, a number of companies saw increases in
American payrolls as a result of mergers and acquisitions. But dozens of
"Forbes 500s" companies registered substantial domestic
payroll increases as a result of internal expansion. America's
upsizing story is at least as important as its downsizing story.
Shouldn't it be told?
Adam Meyerson is a vice president of The Heritage Foundation and
the editor of Policy Review: The Journal of American Citizenship.
