# Question about employment statistics

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-employment-statistics/787271>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 23, 2017, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-employment-statistics/787271 "2017-05-23T12:16:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-employment-statistics/787271/1 "2017-05-23T12:16:11Z")

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I was looking through the [list of Maine’s largest employers](http://www.maine.gov/labor/cwri/qcew3.html) and noticed something strange. Sometimes, subsidiaries of a company are listed seperately, and other times, they are lumped together.  
For example, there is an entry for “Walmart/ Sams Club”.  
Aroostook Medical Center, Eastern Maine Medical Center and Mercy Hospital are subsidiaries of Eastern Maine Health Services, and all four have their own entries on the list.  
The other big hospital system in the state also appears multiple times on the list as MaineHealth(Parent org.), Penobscot Bay Medical Center, Maine Behavioral Healthcare.  
Why are subsidiaries counted seperatly in healthcare but not other fields?

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**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-employment-statistics/787271/2 "2017-05-23T18:51:29Z")

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Possibly it depends on how these employer(s) listed themself when applying for workers comp/unemployment programs?

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**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-employment-statistics/787271/3 "2017-05-23T19:03:10Z")

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It’s likely those subsidiary medical centers used to be independent and just keep reporting as individual enterprises. I don’t how these hospitals are organized, many only become subsidiaries by maintaining some sense of individual control in the first place as opposed to those who are taken over by larger entities at the point of impending failure.

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**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-employment-statistics/787271/4 "2017-05-23T19:24:23Z")

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Sam’s Club is not a subsidiary of Walmart. It’s an internal division of Walmart, just like Walmart USA is an internal division.