Edward Jones, which has a number of offices in and around Wichita, is No. 2 on Fortune magazine’s list of the 100 best companies to work for.
Headquartered in St. Louis, the company has more than 30,000 in the United States. Last year, it had more than 2,000 new jobs, a growth of 9 percent. As of Jan. 13, it had more than 1,000 openings.
From Fortune:
The stock market collapse reduced partner distributions and bonuses, but Jim Weddle, who heads the brokerage, assured associates the firm had no exposure to high-risk mortgages or financial derivatives and no plans for layoffs. Jones hired 698 new financial advisors in the first ten months of 2008 and is building an addition to its St. Louis headquarters for 500 new employees.
No companies based in Kansas were on the list, but some with a significant number employees here were. Those include Cisco Systems (No. 6), Starbucks (No. 24), QuikTrip (No. 27), CarMax (No. 31), Men’s Wearhouse (No. 71), FedEx (No. 90) and T-Mobile (No. 96).
While doing my morning scan of bank industry news I ran across an interesting survey on the American Banker Web site.
The survey asks that because Citigroup and Bank of America have gone back to the federal government for more aid, is this the end or will there be more rounds of “too big to fail” banks asking for money?
Here’s the survey and the results on voting thus far:
Citi and B of A have gone back to the government trough — does it end there?
Yes, the rest of the industry is stable and has no need of further infusions
1%
No, Wells bought Wachovia without government aid — they’ll come looking
33%
No, but future assistance will be broader: a facility that buys bad assets from banks
26%
I’ve stopped guessing
40%
I chose the last option. It’s good to see that I’m in the majority, but also a little scary because the assumption is most of those responding to the survey are bankers.
Former CBS News correspondent David Henderson has an interesting item on his blog. Seems an executive from big Atlanta PR firm Ketchum recently traveled to Memphis to speak with a client — a little company called FedEx – about social media.
Here’s what the guy posted on his Twitter account upon arriving in Memphis:
“True confession but I’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say, ‘I would die if I had to live here.’”
What followed is probably a good lesson for anyone who uses Twitter, or any other social media Web site. Read about here.