Comcast picked up the hiring pace in 2007, adding 900 employees throughout Maryland in the past year and bringing its state total to more than 4,200.
The Philadelphia-based cable, Internet and phone provider this week said a majority of its hires this year were for customer-service positions. The company plans to continuehiring and expanding in Maryland in the new year.
Comcast?s hiring trend in Maryland was consistent with hiring in other states, company spokeswoman Alisha Martin said. In the past two years, Comcast has hired 12,000 customer-service agents and technicians nationwide.
“Over the past year, we have experienced unprecedented growth in Maryland,” Barbara Gehrig, regional senior vice president of Comcast?s Maryland/Delaware/Richmond region, said in a statement. “We will be recruiting and hiring new team members across the state.”
The company ? the 27th-largest private-sector employer in the Baltimore area in 2006, according to the Baltimore Business Journal?s Book of Lists ? services more than 1 million customers in Maryland but still trails New York-based Verizon, which services more than 2 million customers in the state.
Verizon spokeswoman Sandra Arnette said the company has about 14,000 employees working in Maryland. Arnette said Verizon ? the 12th-largest employer in the Baltimore area in 2006 ? had no expansion plans for the coming year to announce at this time.
Both companies were active in the community in 2007. Verizon this week said 169 nonprofit groups in Maryland received about $1.3 million from the Verizon Foundation this year.
The state?s nonprofits also received $324,000 from the Comcast Foundation, and the company also contributed $111,000 in state high school scholarships.
