Staff levels rose by 31 percent from 2001 to 2013 at the companies analyzed while inflation-adjusted profits grew 150 percent, the wire service reports. The analysis is based on corporate filings by 100 of the largest publicly owned U.S. companies. The filings do not specify where hiring took place, and it is likely that a significant portion of the job growth reported in the documents came from outside the U.S.
Nearly a third of the companies actually shed jobs over the period Reuters examined, including several that shrank payrolls amid rising profits and revenues. Verizon, for example, sliced its workforce by over 30 percent while doubling its profits.
Read more: Think Progress