Size doesn't count: Though employment statewide moved up slightly, jobs in the state's 100 largest employers shrank 4.4%.

• Author: Murray, Arthur O.
• Position: Largest Employers

The National Bureau of Economic Research proclaimed in November that the U.S. economy had been in a recession since March. To a lot of Tar Heels, that was a blinding glimpse of the obvious. They had the pink slips to prove it.

As of October, statewide unemployment was 5.5%, slightly higher than the national average of 5.4% and much higher than the year before, when it was 3.8%. Atop that, the number of workers at the state's 100 largest employers dipped 4.4%, according to BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA'S annual survey.

Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores took over the top spot in BNC's ranking, increasing its number of Tar Heel workers by 8%, to 36,000. The discount retailer displaced Salisbury-based Delhaize America, holding company for the Food Lion grocery chain, which had held the top spot since 1994.

But growth like Wal-Mart's wasn't the norm, even among the biggest of the big. Total employment for the top 25 increased less than 1%. What's worse, the company that appeared to have the greatest growth, Charlotte-based Wachovia, didn't really have any. Formed by the merger of Charlotte-based First Union and Winston-Salem-based Wachovia, the new Wachovia employs 28,000. But taken together, its two predecessor banks last year employed 31,270. The difference: a 10.5% drop. Still, the financial-services industry -- banks, brokerages, real estate and insurance -- was healthy compared to many parts of the economy. The Employment Security Commission says employment statewide was up 1.2%.

Contrast that with manufacturing, down 6.2% statewide. Textile employment was down 10.8%, with the industry losing 15,000 jobs. Kannapolis-based Pillowtex laid off 2,000 workers, and Greensboro-based Burlington Industries cut 1,100. Apparel employment declined 9.7% -- 5,000 jobs. Chicago-based Sara Lee idled 2,000 at its Tar Heel plants. And furniture employment was down 8%, with 5,000 jobs gone. Here again, one company did much of the cutting. Monroe, Mich.-based La-Z-Boy laid off 3,400 Tar Heels.

High-tech companies scaled back, too. Corning, N.Y.-based Coming, which makes optical fiber and fiber-optic cable at five plants in North Carolina, idled at least 2,650 workers in October. Corning calls the move a furlough and continues to say its North Carolina employment is 7,000, the same as in BNC's 2001 survey. Brampton, Ontario-based Nortel Networks chopped Tar Heel jobs by a third, to 5,000.

Where didn't employment fall? In the service and health-care industries. Also up was government employment. About 19,000 more people, a 5% increase, worked for local governments in 2001. If there's one thing recession-proof, it's government work.

NORTH CAROLINA'S LARGEST FOR-PROFIT EMPLOYERS 2002 2001 Rank Rank Company Headquarters 1 2 Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Bentonville, Ark. 2 1 Delhaize America Inc. (1) Salisbury 3 3 Wachovia Corp. (2) Charlotte 4 4 IBM Corp. Armonk, N.Y. 5 5 Bank of America Corp. Chrarlotte 6 9 J.C. Penney Co. (3) Plano, Texas 7 6 Ruddick Corp. (4) Charlotte 8 7 Lowe's Cos. Wilkesboro 9 8 Furniture Brands St. Louis International Inc. (5) 10 10 US Airways Group Inc. Arlington, Va. 11 12 Duke Energy Corp. Charlotte 12 14 LifeStyle Furnishings High Point International Ltd. (6) 13 13 BB&T Corp. Winston-Salem 14 14...