Given how US unemployment and US underemployment is the dominant issue of concern to US citizens, I thought it would be wise to review the annual SEC filings of US Corps to see just what they are disclosing.
Amazingly, there is such a paucity of employee reporting to the SEC by US Corps.
All you see is mostly a very brief paragraph, and in many cases, just one sentence.
And there is little consistency in the US Big Corp SEC reporting of employees.
Some Corps report the number of full-time employees, while others also include part-time and temporary employees. With this US job depression, the relevant number that should be reported separately is the number of full-time employees, along with the related average pay and average employee benefits. These are the real jobs.
From reviewing more than 1,000 of US large corp SEC disclosures on their employees, I find it incredible of the number of part-time, seasonal, temporary, and contract workers.....all "Jobettes" that so many large US Corps have. These all fall into the neglected "Underemployed" Category that is such a devastating US job problem. And these underemployed people aren't included in the already extremely high US Unemployment Rate.
Let me just cite a couple of specific problems with these number of Jobettes being reported or not reported in US Big Corp SEC filings.
Walmart has 2.1 million employees, but refused to disclose the breakdown here between its number of full-time and part-time employees. All Walmart would say is that they have a large number of part-time employees. I'm not kidding.....that's their SEC disclosure, and the SEC has absolutely no problem with this.
And the same goes for giants McDonalds, Target, Safeway, Kroger, Macy's (including Bloomingdale's), Best Buy, JC Penney, TJX (including T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods), Safeway, Starbucks, the Gap (including also Old Navy and Banana Republic) and many more huge US Corps with their decision to not report their substantial number of part-time employees.
Yum Brands (Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell) did report its number of part-time employees, which comprised an amazingly high 86% of its 378,000 work force.
And Limited Brands (Victoria Secret's and Bath & Body Works) also reported its 79,000 part-time employees, which made up an incredible 82%% of its total work force.
So did Kohls, whose 107,000 part-time employees comprised 79% of its total work force.
So did Ross Stores also reported its 35,500 part-time employees, which made up 72% of its total work force.
So did Publix Super Markets, whose 78,000 part-time employees comprised 53% of its work force.
So did Costco, whose 72,000 part-time employees comprised 44% of its work force.
So did Home Depot, whose 41% of their 321,000 employees are part-time.
So did Staples, whose 36,100 part-time employees comprised 41% of its work force.
So did Lowe's, whose 73,000 part-time employees comprised 31% of its work force.
So did Walgreen's, whose 71,000 part-time employees comprised 29% of its work force.
And so did CVS Caremark, whose 79,000 part-time employees comprised 28% of its work force.
Carnival's 75,000 Crew Members on its cruise ships are more than 7 times its number of 10,200 full-time employees.
Darden Restaurant's (Olive Garden, Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouse) 168,500 hourly restaurant personnel made up a massive 94% of its total work force.
And a substantially high percentage of US For-Profit Education Corp employees, including professors, are part-time employees, or even worse, independent contractors.
And FedEx didn't report their massive number of Drivers, who are very questionably treated as jobette independent contractors.
And all US Republican Presidential Candidates proudly proclaim that they are wholeheartedly for deceptively and intentionally inaccurately-named National "Right to Work"?
Right to Work Legislation substantially reduces employee pay and employee benefits and transfers this employee cost reduction to the bottom-line profits of US Big Corps, which further expands the gargantuan wealth gap between the 1% and the 99%.
And because this employee pay and benefits reduction is taken out of local economies all over the country, small businesses get economically pummeled by Right to Work.
Right to Work Legislation also substantially shifts jobs from decent full-time ones to the already monstrously-growing, highly-undesirable Jobette ones.
Isn't the wealth gap between the 1% and the 99% enough already? Just how much does the 1% want, that they are even now drastically demanding this step-on-the-toes-of-the-99% Right to Work Legislation? What ever happened to the country's sense of decency?
I think what has happened here with these large US Corps maximizing their "Jobette" worker category is flat out criminal. It's all about maximizing the bottom-line profits of large US Corps, regardless of the horrible economic consequences to these so many underemployed, who aren't earning anyway near a livable wage.
And it is another case of the 1% coldly trouncing on the 99%. But what these 1% Corps have to realize is that it is just a matter of time before this incredibly and brutally cruel and unfair economic situation gets corrected, one way or another.
The Occupying Movement is closely watching how US Big Corps, the US Congress, and the State Legislators deal with this huge "Jobette" problem, since many of these brave Occupiers are presently Jobettely employed.
Also, the overwhelming majority of US Big Corps simply report the approximate number of employees to the nearest thousand, as if they don't know exactly how many employees they have. What an incredibly devious, cold-hearted approach. They know precisely the exact number of employees they have and they should report them. These are real people who have jobs, not some sarcastic approximation, which is just an afterthought to the intensely bottom-line-profit-focused large US Corps.
Very few US Corps report the reason for the annual change in the number of full-time employees. Clearly, the change caused by significant business acquisitions and spinoffs are both highly relevant to US financial readers. One company that sticks out here in its transparent reporting is Qualcomm, which discloses how much of the increase in the number of employees each year is due to business acquisitions. And Qualcomm also discloses the other major reason for the annual increase in the number of jobs.....due to engineering resources.
In reviewing over 1,000 US Big Corp employee SEC disclosures, the posture child for meaningful disclosure is Norfolk Southern, which is the only one of the 1,000 plus that discloses its average pay and average employee benefit costs. Let me copy its SEC Employee Reporting below here:
"EMPLOYEES - The following table shows the average number of employees and the average cost per employee for wages and benefits:
.............................2010......2009......2008......2007......2006
Average number of
..employees.........28,559...28,593...30,709...30,806...30,541
Average wage cost
..per employee.$69,000.$63,000.$66,000.$62,000.$62,000
Average benefit cost
..per employee.$37,000.$32,000.$31,000.$30,000.$32,000"
The SEC should be requiring every large public corporation to report the above numbers that Norfolk Southern has elected to disclose. They are very meaningful to all financial readers.
But by far the key disclosure that is most lacking in these very trying US job depression times is the number of US full-time employees. Few companies report in their SEC filings that critically important US full-time employee number to US citizens.
It only makes sense that since the SEC isn't now requiring US Corps to disclose this key information, that the Obama Administration should take charge and require them to do so. No Congressional Action is needed here, just a wise Executive Order.
How can US citizens effectively help the horrible US job situation if they have a US government agency (the SEC) that keeps them from having critical information necessary to take proper actions to improve the US job situation.
And how can investors properly make stock and bond investments when the the SEC prevents them from having salient information on the number of employees of companies. The key point here is that if a company continually and substantially reduces its key work force, the earnings and cash flows from operations being reported are of low-quality, and frankly artificial, from a looking forward long-term perspective.
Also what is critically needed here is for the SEC to require US Corps to disclose the precise US federal income tax benefit they are receiving each year from 100% first-year tax expensing and 50% first-year bonus tax depreciation, both related to equipment purchases.
This US Congressional initiative has just devastated the US Government coffers in the past four years or so. The promise was that it would create a lot of US jobs. I don't think it has. It has been great for the profits of US Big Corps, and their 1% beneficiaries, but not so great for the 99%, who continue to be economically devastated by a US Congress whose legislation consistently favors the 1%.
Financial readers should be able to see each Big Corp's US federal income tax benefit received from 100% tax expensing and from 50% bonus tax depreciation in each of the past four years or so. Then, they can properly compare it with the change in the number of US full-time employees of these same US Big Corps in these same years.
This assessment will give an excellent reading on the extent of financial greed and US patriotism of each of the public companies reporting to the SEC.
And frankly, I think just requiring public companies to do this much improved financial reporting in their annual SEC filing of the number of US full-time employees and the tax benefit from 100% tax expensing and 50% bonus tax depreciation will make companies much more careful in both overdosing in laying off employees, and in keeping from hiring employees.
When I get some time, I will be presenting a summary of present SEC reporting of the number of employees of the largest, most profitable US Corps.
===========================
Late Addition
Another US Big Corp that did an excellent job in very transparently reporting in its 4Q 2011 Earnings Release, which is also filed with the SEC, the details of its workforce is Caterpillar.
Below here is Caterpillar's recent 4Q 2011 Earnings Release Workforce Disclosure.
"Global Workforce
Caterpillar worldwide full-time employment was 125,099 at the end of 2011 compared with 104,490 at the end of 2010, an increase of 20,609 full-time employees. In addition, we increased the flexible workforce by 5,818 for a total increase in the global workforce of 26,427.
We increased our workforce to support higher sales volume across all geographic regions. In addition, acquisitions, primarily Bucyrus and MWM, added 13,720 people, while the sale of Carter and a portion of the Bucyrus distribution business reduced the workforce by 1,506 people.
...........................................December 31,
.........................................2011........2010.........Change
Full-time employment...125,099...104,490.......20,609
Flexible workforce..........27,884.....22,066..........5,818
Total.............................152,983....126,556........26,427
Summary of change
U.S. workforce additions.......................6,496
Non-U.S. workforce additions...............7,717
Total additions....................................14,213
Acquisitions/divestitures net..............12,214
Total...................................................26,427"
All US Big Corps should take Caterpillar's patriotic lead here. US Citizens, including US investors, have to be impressed with what Caterpillar did here. When the SEC is not performing its duties properly, then the best US Corps should fill in for them and take the lead.
