General Electric: number of employees in the U.S. 2007-2021

General Electric’s headcount amounted to some 168,000 employees in 2021, of whom around 55,000 were employed in the United States. The company recently entered a restructuring phase and reduced its headcount by around 30,000 between 2017 and 2018. In 2020, the company further reduced its staff by around 31,000. That said, General Electric (GE) employs less people than most of its rivals, including Siemens and United Technologies Corporation.

Of selloffs and layoffs

In its heyday, GE stock traded at over 50 U.S. dollars per share. This changed dramatically when General Electric shares fell to a low of 7.57 U.S. dollars in December 2018. Earlier that year, the company had already dropped out of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) index. The company’s net loss attributable to common shareowners of 5.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 and the decline in stock value affected employee stock ownership plans, which was particularly felt by retirees who are now left fearing for their savings and might have to re-enter the labor market.