Employment at the top telecommunications and wireless companies in Orange County dipped to about 7,100 workers, a 2.8% decline from year-ago levels.
Much of the decline came from two companies.
Cellphone tower company Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE: CCI) in Irvine showed the biggest percentage drop, 32%, going from 326 last year to 221 employees last month, according to the annual Business Journal survey of those responding.
Privately held telecom infrastructure company Mobilitie LLC showed the second-largest percentage drop in Orange County, according to the survey, with employment falling from 250 a year ago to 200 last month. It’s not reflected in the company’s ambitious growth plans, though. The Newport Beach-based company last week announced a $1 billion deal with an unnamed foreign investment fund to “fuel the next five years of growth.”
Mobilitie, the only Orange County-based company in the top 10, dropped one place to No. 8 on the list, which ranks companies by local employee count. The other top nine companies are units of businesses headquartered outside OC.
The Business Journal ranking covers 16 telecommunications and wireless companies that have 60 or more employees.
Buzzin’
No. 15 CenturyLink Inc. in Irvine showed the biggest percentage increase, jumping 20% to 90 OC employees. The company, headquartered in Louisiana, is the second-largest U.S. communications provider to global enterprise customers.
CalAmp Inc. (Nasdaq: CAMP) of Irvine, which is also included in the separate tech company survey (see software companies list, page 27), showed the second-largest percentage increase in the sector. The vehicle software and telematics provider went from 94 employees to 111 as of last month for an 18% boost, good for the No. 14 spot.
The top three spots for companies with the most employees remained unchanged this year:
• No. 1 Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) in Irvine had an estimated 1,625 positions, followed by AT&T Communications LLC (NYSE: T) in Tustin with an estimated 1,153 employees.
• T-Mobile USA Inc. (Nasdaq: TMUS) in Irvine stayed in third place, despite a 2.4% dip in the number of employees this year to 994.
Sprint Corp.’s unit in Irvine retained its place on the Business Journal’s list at No. 6 with an unchanged estimate of 500 employees.
The Justice Department has cleared the planned T-Mobile and Sprint merger last month, and the deal now goes to the Federal Communications Commission for approval. Democratic leaders in Washington have strongly opposed the deal, which includes the sale of Sprint’s Boost Mobile prepaid phone and internet services to Dish Network Corp.
Sprint’s local headquarters that houses Boost Mobile are in the Irvine Spectrum; the company doesn’t break out the employee count within the Boost unit, which it has owned since 2005. A large part of its operations such as marketing are being run out of Sprint’s main offices in Kansas.
