As Warren Buffett’s Empire Expands, Many Jobs Disappear

It all points to an often overlooked truth: Despite Buffett’s folksy image, Berkshire has thrived for years by keeping things lean and buying companies that—in his own words—are run by “cost-conscious and efficient managers.” The result? Buffett hasn’t shut down many operations during his five decades atop the firm. But more than two dozen of his companies employ fewer people today than they used to.

For the past 15 years, Berkshire has told investors in its annual report how many employees each of its subsidiaries have at year-end. The data paint a nuanced picture of one of the most hard-to-define companies on the planet. But there are quirks. For instance, Berkshire often doesn’t note in the data when one of its businesses buys another, which can make it seem like there’s hiring when the conglomerate is just absorbing people. The company also doesn’t always make clear when units are combined or spun out of others.

Bloomberg News analyzed the data to ask a simple question: Is Buffett's reputation as a job creator deserved? The answer: It depends where you look.

Take Gen Re, a reinsurer that Buffett bought in the late 1990s. The company has struggled to grow amid competition from other providers and an overall glut of capital in the industry.

Or Shaw Industries, a carpet and flooring company based in Georgia. The housing market crash in 2008 hurt sales, and the business ended up shutting some factories to account for the slowdown and shifting consumer tastes.

The story for other businesses is more complicated. Fruit of the Loom now has about 3,500 more employees than it did in 2003. But that’s in part because it absorbed two large businesses—a unit of VF Corp. that makes lingerie and pajamas and Russell Corp., an athletic-apparel manufacturer. Both of those divisions have shrunk considerably under Berkshire’s ownership.

Berkshire Hathaway Energy is another example where acquisitions have boosted headcount, masking areas where there’s contraction. Since the division bought PacifiCorp in 2006, for instance, the utility’s workforce has shrunk by about 1,000 people.

A spokeswoman for Berkshire Hathaway Energy confirmed that most of the recent growth in employment at the division has come from acquisitions and said that PacifiCorp had “optimized” its workforce to better serve customers. Representatives for Gen Re and Shaw declined to comment. Fruit of the Loom and Buffett didn't respond to requests for comment.

By and large, the biggest businesses in Buffettville have been adding staff. Perhaps the best example is Geico. The car insurer has spent heavily on marketing to attract new customers. It’s also aggressively expanded as competitors scaled back. That strategy has helped it grow into the second-largest player in the industry, behind State Farm.

Here’s how the workforces within Berkshire subsidiaries have changed over the past 15 years: