GE (GE) CEO Jeff Immelt Speaks on Jobs, Growth and R&D
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General Electric’s (NYSE: GE) CEO Jeff Immelt was recently interviewed for CBS’s show "60 Minutes." The exec highlighted multiple directions in which GE is looking to grow.
Immelt was interviewed by CBS’s Leslie Stahl as the two traveled from a company Aviation plant in Mississippi to its appliance plant in Kentucky.
The company has 133,000 employees in the U.S. and is looking at different ways to bring more jobs to the States. Management has introduced 8,000 new jobs since 2009 and has brought back many jobs from Mexico and China to its Kentucky appliance plant. GE recently announced plans to build the largest thin-film solar plant in the U.S. which is expected to add 300-400 jobs initially.
Stahl asked Immelt how GE can be adding jobs in areas such as Brazil and China when the U.S. needs an abundance of new jobs. Immelt stated confidently that GE will add jobs where they need to be added and that if China and Brazil are showing substantial signs of growth, the company will continue to add jobs in those areas. GE receives 60 percent of its total revenue from overseas.
"If I wasn’t out chasing orders in every corner of the world, we’d have tens of thousands fewer employees in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts, Texas. I’m never going to apologize [for expanding its workforce globally], ever, ever,” Immelt said.
The CEO noted a $1.5 billion investment in developing the GEnx engines for the new Boeing (NYSE: BA) Dreamliner before the first plane was ever sold. Immelt has tripled the R&D budget at GE since he took over as chief. He sees no reason why the U.S. cannot compete with China in the race for energy.
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Immelt was interviewed by CBS’s Leslie Stahl as the two traveled from a company Aviation plant in Mississippi to its appliance plant in Kentucky.
The company has 133,000 employees in the U.S. and is looking at different ways to bring more jobs to the States. Management has introduced 8,000 new jobs since 2009 and has brought back many jobs from Mexico and China to its Kentucky appliance plant. GE recently announced plans to build the largest thin-film solar plant in the U.S. which is expected to add 300-400 jobs initially.
Stahl asked Immelt how GE can be adding jobs in areas such as Brazil and China when the U.S. needs an abundance of new jobs. Immelt stated confidently that GE will add jobs where they need to be added and that if China and Brazil are showing substantial signs of growth, the company will continue to add jobs in those areas. GE receives 60 percent of its total revenue from overseas.
"If I wasn’t out chasing orders in every corner of the world, we’d have tens of thousands fewer employees in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts, Texas. I’m never going to apologize [for expanding its workforce globally], ever, ever,” Immelt said.
The CEO noted a $1.5 billion investment in developing the GEnx engines for the new Boeing (NYSE: BA) Dreamliner before the first plane was ever sold. Immelt has tripled the R&D budget at GE since he took over as chief. He sees no reason why the U.S. cannot compete with China in the race for energy.
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