A whopping 75% of Cisco's new job creation was in locations outside the United States

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A whopping 75% of Cisco's new job creation was in locations outside the United States
Thu, 12/23/10 - 4:36am View comments

On November 5, 2010 Cisco CEO John Chambers authored a blog titled:

U.S. Jobs, Innovation, Growth and Investment

Scandalously, Chambers blogged:

"We have been one of the few companies creating jobs during this difficult economic period, and in the last year alone we added over 3,000 jobs right here in the United States."

So why am I calling it a scandalous blog?

Well, according to Cisco's most recent Form 10-K filing (page 12) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, during Fiscal Year 2010, Cisco's United States employee headcount actually only grew by a mere +1,300 people (see the below 16-year Cisco employee headcount chart).

Heck, that's -1,700 less jobs than Cisco CEO John Chambers blogged he had created (which also means that 75% of Cisco's new job creation during its Fiscal Year 2010 were in locations outside the United States).

Furthermore, making it even more scandalous in my opinion, of the +1,300 new U.S. jobs that Cisco actually did create, it won't reveal how many were actually filled by U.S. Citizens.

16-year Cisco employee headcount chart:

Fiscal Year	TOTAL*	NonUSA	MFG	Engineers	Sales	Admin
2010	70,700	32,350	18,250	21,250	24,600	6,600
2009	65,550	28,500	16,600	19,300	23,250	6,400
2008	66,129	28,700	16,794	19,584	23,529	6,222
2007	61,535	26,500	16,227	18,410	21,465	5,433
2006	49,926	19,600	13,126	15,288	17,322	4,190
2005	38,413	11,000	6,812	13,935	14,414	3,252
2004	34,000	9,600	6,000	12,000	13,000	3,000
2003	34,000	9,000	6,000	12,000	13,000	3,000
2002	36,000	10,000	6,000	13,000	14,000	3,000
2001	38,000	11,000	7,000	13,000	15,000	3,000
2000	34,000	9,000	6,000	11,000	14,000	3,000
1999	21,000	4,400	3,900	7,000	8,600	1,500
1998	15,000	3,000	3,000	4,500	6,300	1,200
1997	11,000	2,000	2,200	3,400	4,500	900
1996	8,782	1,400	2,147	2,420	3,387	828
1995**	4,086	621	427	1,016	1,617	405

Source: Cisco Form 10-K Filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

*2010 thru 1996: MFG + Engineers + Sales + Admin = TOTAL

**1995: NonUSA + MFG + Engineers + Sales + Admin = TOTAL

Chambers continued:

"Our commitment to the U.S. economy and to the American worker is strong and we've made the investments to prove it. We believe that at least temporarily reducing the incremental tax rate on foreign earned profits would encourage companies to invest in the U.S."

Revealingly, it was Cisco's Fiscal Year 2005 Annual Report that specifically detailed its last "foreign earned profits tax holiday" where Cisco repatriated to the U.S. its accumulated income earned abroad:

"On October 22, 2004, the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (the 'Jobs Creation Act') was signed into law. The Jobs Creation Act creates a temporary incentive for U.S. corporations to repatriate accumulated income earned abroad by providing an 85 percent dividends received deduction for certain dividends from controlled foreign corporations.

"In the first quarter of fiscal 2006, we distributed cash from our foreign subsidiaries and will report an extraordinary dividend (as defined in the Jobs Creation Act) of $1.2 billion."

So how many new U.S. jobs did Cisco create in Fiscal Year 2006 with all that cash it received from its foreign subsidiaries, especially since according to Cisco CEO John Chambers, Cisco is committed to the U.S. economy and to the American worker?

Well, according to Cisco's Fiscal Year 2006 Form 10-K (page 10):

Again, a whopping 75% of Cisco's new job creations were in locations outside the United States!