IBM still No. 1 employer, but Ball moves up

With 4,500 employees in Boulder, IBM again tops The Boulder County Business Report?s list of largest private-sector employers in Boulder and Broomfield counties.

But the most significant job growth last year came at Ball Corp. The company that perennially places No. 3 jumped to No. 2 by growing its headcount more than 22 percent, adding 575 workers during 2004.

Ball (NYSE: BLL, $40.06) now employs 3,175 between its Boulder aerospace and technologies division and Broomfield corporate headquarters.

Most of the new hires came at the aerospace division, said Scott McCarty, spokesman for Ball Corp.

?We are always looking for people and trying to hire fairly aggressively, especially for engineers,? said Dave Beachley, media relations manager for Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.

The nature of aerospace work, which depends on NASA and other government agency programs, can make it hard to predict the need to hire, he said.

Hiring will continue in 2005, but not at quite the pace of 2004. ?We do have a fairly significant backlog of work,? Beachley said. ?I think plans are just to add people as we need them.?

Ball Corp., recognized internationally for metal and PET plastic food and beverage containers, also completed the relocation of its plastic container research and development offices from Atlanta to its facility on the Broomfield/Westminster border, McCarty said. The company brought in about 25 employees and increased its space from 40,000 to 70,000 square feet.
Ball has about 13,200 employees across the globe.

Even at No. 1, IBM (NYSE: IBM, $76.28) went from 4,700 to 4,500 employees since last year. Spokesman Dan Willis attributed the reduction to the nature of its Global Services division, which makes up the bulk of IBM?s Boulder business. ?It?s very contract based and ebbs and flows with client needs,? he said. ?It isn?t unusual for us to fluctuate month to month or year to year. Over the last 10 years we?ve varied between 3,000 and 5,000.?

The Armonk, N.Y.-based computer giant employs about 369,277 worldwide.

With 2,700 employees in Broomfield, Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW, $3.54) slipped to third from second place last year.

During the third quarter of 2004, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based computer company ?announced plans to reduce the company?s cost structure and improve operating efficiencies. The company continues to take action to resize the company for growth,? wrote spokeswoman Kristin Huguet in an e-mail.

About 3,000 employees were furloughed worldwide, including 600 locally. Although the numbers reflect a 3 percent drop worldwide, the Broomfield campus? drop was closer to 18 percent.

Sun?s revenues for 2004 fell 2.2 percent to $11.18 billion, resulting in a net loss of $388 million.
The company?s revenues for the third quarter of fiscal 2005 were $2.625 billion, a decrease of 1 percent compared with $2.651 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2004. Net loss for the third quarter of fiscal 2005 was $9 million. Even reducing head count by 100 jobs didn?t budge Boulder Community Hospital out of fourth place, a ranking it has held since 2003.

Level 3 Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT, $1.85) remained in fifth place. The 2,050-employee Broomfield-based company lost 100 jobs, a decrease of nearly 5 percent from the last year. Worldwide the company employs 4,500.

In January Level 3 announced it would lay off about 500-600 employees worldwide. The reduction was expected to result in operational savings of approximately $60 million to $70 million per year, according to a press release.

Level 3?s first quarter 2005 revenue was $1.01 billion, up from $899 million the previous quarter, but down from the $1.05 billion of first quarter 2004.

The company reported a $77 million net loss, or 11 cents a share. This compared favorably with its net loss of $147 million, or 22 cents, in the first quarter of 2004.

Rounding out the top 10 largest private-sector employers are:

No. 6: Storage Technology Corp., (NYSE: STK, 28.6300), which ranked sixth last year, remained at 2,000 jobs at its Louisville campus.

No. 7: The Business Report added Safeway Inc. (NYSE: SWY, $21.20) to its private-sector employer list. The Pleasanton, Calif.-based food retailer employs 1,250 in its 11 grocery stores in Boulder and Broomfield counties. About 191,000 work for Safeway across North America.

No. 8: Seagate Technology LLC (NYSE: STX, $18.71) remained No. 8 with 2,000 people at its Longmont facility. The Scotts Valley, Calif. disk drive company has some 44,000 employees worldwide.

No. 9: A combination of adding Safeway to the Business Report?s largest employer list and its loss of 20 employees moved Longmont United Hospital to ninth from seventh place last year. The hospital now employs 1,191.

No. 10: With 1,000 workers, Valleylab, a division of Tyco Healthcare Group LP (NYSE: TYC, $31.69), is once again No. 10. The medical device manufacturer based in Princeton N.J. employs 258,400 internationally.

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