Making more with less.

• Position: Largest employers in North Carolina

As some big employers shrink their work force, jobs continue to grow.

BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA's fifth annual ranking of the state's largest employers has a lot of big companies trying to get a little smaller. IBM, for instance, has cut more than 1,000 jobs in North Carolina, and Duke Power bought out 1,200 employees last fall. In these days of downsizing, "rightsizing" and reorganization, workers might feel a little more secure at a small company, but no job is forever.

"I hear over and over again that the Fortune 500 haven't created any jobs since 1979 and that small employers are creating the new jobs," First Union economist Mark Vitner says. "That's a gross exaggeration. The economy is constantly evolving." Sure, big companies shrink and expand, but small companies sometimes become big ones - and sometimes go broke.

North Carolina employment for the companies on this year's list is 579,450, slightly higher than last year. First Union's employment, for instance, increased almost 1,400 last year to 11,360. And IBM, which reported 14,000 workers, is moving about as many jobs here as it has cut.

Robert Cottrell, director of labor-market information for the Employment Security Commission, calculates that companies employing more than 2,000 in North Carolina grew from 110 in 1992 to 119 in 1994. Their average annual employment rose 8%, to 533,446. "We hear a lot about smaller firms," Cottrell notes, "but there are a significant number of large companies."

At businesses...