Orange County’s largest telecommunication employers continued to add jobs at a healthy clip last year, adding 1,488 workers to their ranks for a 9% employment growth rate amid another year of mega-mergers.
Hidden in the increases of old-line parents, the industry’s booming wireless offsprings made the biggest news.
The majority of new telecommunications jobs stemmed from the wireless divisions of just three companies,Pacific Bell, Sprint Corp. and AT & T; Corp., which collectively added 1,071 new workers. That’s about two-thirds of total new jobs for telecom firms and nearly a 70% increase from last year.
The wireless numbers were the biggest surprises in this year’s Business Journal list, which ranks telecommunication companies by their current number of Orange County workers. The list includes providers of standard telephone service, wireless service, Internet access and phone equipment.
In all, the 20 companies employ 18,656 people locally.
Compared with last year’s list of the largest telecommunications employers, this year’s companies added 1,189 jobs, an 7% increase. The comparisons are slightly different because the top telecommunications employers are not necessarily the same companies from year to year.
The upsurge seems to mirror activity on Wall Street, which has gone bonkers over the wireless sector in recent months. Wireless phones, once limited to professionals, have become more affordable, fueling demand. A blitz of television commercials and all-you-can-eat calling plans that often include ong distance have some users forgoing a standard home line for a wireless alternative.
But judging from this year’s list, traditional phone providers are some of the primary beneficiaries of the migration.
Pacific Bell, part of SBC Communications Inc., held onto its top position, adding 622 OC employees, an 11% gain, for a total of 6,395. Pacific Bell bolstered its wireless division 45% by adding 122 workers for a total of 395.
Among the top five spots, Sprint overtook AT & T; as the fourth-largest local industry employer by adding 786 workers,746 of those in the wireless division, a 189% increase.
Company officials say the spike stemmed from several hiring efforts over the last year. Its customer support center went from serving a regional area to handling calls nationally. In addition, the company is beefing up its network, and adding more retail stores across Southern California. Overall, the company employs 1,286 locally.
After years of retrenchment, AT & T;’s local operations also grew, though at a lesser pace than those of Sprint and others. The company’s wireless division added 193 people for a total of 1,066. The company employs another 200 in Orange County for its traditional phone and Internet services, for a total of 1,266.
No. 3 Verizon Wireless was the exception to the wireless surge.
The company,a joint venture launched this year between Verizon Communications and Vodaphone AirTouch PLC,cut 197 positions, or about 10% of its workforce.
No. 2 Verizon Communications, meanwhile, added 137 local workers, an increase of 3%. In OC and elsewhere, Verizon did business as GTE Corp. before merging with Bell Atlantic this year.
According to Scottsdale, Ariz., market research firm Cahners In-Stat Group, wireless phone demand will continue to mushroom, doubling in the next five years to about 180 million U.S. subscribers.
Some of the lackluster demand for traditional services provided by companies other than Pacific Bell could be blamed on the competitive landscape. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was supposed to open local phone service to a bevy of rival phone companies. But many Pacific Bell rivals complain that the phone incumbent hasn’t fully opened its system to other providers, hampering competition.
Most competitors so far have targeted the lucrative business market, but say they intend to go after residential consumers as well.
No. 6 Cox Communications Inc., which makes its debut on the list after launching phone service last year, has targeted both residential and business customers. The company added 140 people last year for a total head count of 740. Most of those, though, are employed in the Atlanta-based company’s much larger cable television operation.
The year was mixed bag for phone equipment providers.
No. 16 Toshiba America Information Systems Inc., though known more for its line of computers than its high-tech phone business phone systems, added 33 people for a total of 167 employees, a 25% increase.
Likewise, No. 18 Inter-Tel Technologies Inc., a Phoenix-based company that has operations in Orange, added 20 people to its local operations, a 20% increase. The company designs a variety of voice-over-Internet systems.
But No.10 Ericsson Inc., one of the best-known wireless phone makers, cut 77 positions from its Brea facility, a 19% drop to 320 people.
No. 13 FirstWorld Communications Inc., a Denver-based Web hosting company, cut 72 positions, about 33% of its work force, from its Anaheim facility. It employs 128 people locally.
Williams Communications Solutions LLC, which provides telephone systems and networking services, held steady at 265 employees but fell from No. 7 to No. 11 as other companies added workers. n
