Ordering the top employers in Raleigh, Durham, and the greater Triangle can be tricky. Companies aren’t compelled to disclose local headcounts. When asked, some like Cisco and SAS gave general hiring ranges; others like IBM and GlaxoSmithKline declined to share location-specific jobs figures at all.
But while employers don’t have to inform the public how many workers they have in the area, the vast majority do need to tell the government.
Each month, every business, school, nonprofit and government agency in the state that pays unemployment insurance taxes must report their jobs numbers to the North Carolina Department of Commerce. Some professions are exempt from this rule — like active military and elected officials — but it applies to more than 95% of jobs nationwide…