Of the 15 publicly traded companies that are based in Rhode Island, the two that employ the most number of people in the state are CVS Caremark, with 5,800 employees as of last year; and Hasbro, with 1,200 employees.

According to figures supplied by the companies and compiled by The Providence Journal, job figures for those two corporations have remained relatively stable since 2005.

Hasbro, for example, had 1,200 Rhode Islanders on its payroll in 2005, 2006 and last year. CVS Caremark employment has risen slightly, from 5,400 in 2005 to 5,700 in 2006 to 5,800 last year.

Two newcomers to the playing field of public traded companies, which means their stock is traded on major stock exchanges such as Nasdaq, are FGX International Holdings Ltd., a Smithfield-based producer of costume jewelry and sunglasses, and Towerstream, a Middletown-based provider of wireless Internet access. FGX employed 246 Rhode Islanders last year and Towerstream employed 181.

Textron, which manufactures everything from golf carts to Bell helicopters, has an international work force of 44,000 and is headquartered in downtown Providence. It employs 603 people in Rhode Island. A.T. Cross, manufacturer of writing instruments, lost about 100 workers from 2005 to 2006, but kept its employment stable from 2006 to last year. The company reported 413 employees in 2005, 316 in 2006, and 311 last year.

Many publicly traded companies that are major local employers are based outside of Rhode Island, such as Bank of America, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Amgen and Verizon Communications.

The largest banking employer in the state, Bank of America, had an international work force of 200,000 last year and employed 4,000 in Rhode Island, the same figure as 2006.

On the pharmaceutical front, there was good news and bad news. Amgen employment dropped from 1,700 in 2006 to 1,200 last year as the pharmaceutical company closed one of its two plants in West Greenwich, where the company makes the rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel. Although the numbers were relatively small, there was encouraging news from Alexion Pharmaceuticals, which opened a manufacturing facility in a former Dow Chemical plant in Smithfield. Alexion employment in Rhode Island rose from 10 in 2006 to 100 last year.

UnitedHealth Group more than doubled its Rhode Island employment, going from 235 workers in 2006 to 507 last year. Deborah Spano, spokesman for UnitedHealth, said the health insurer acquired a Rhode Island company called LighthouseMD, which provides technical support services for medical practices.

Employment in the defense industry sector didn’t show a lot of movement. Raytheon’s Rhode Island work force declined slightly, from 1,619 in 2006 to 1,535 last year, while General Dynamics, parent company of Electric Boat, increased its Ocean State employment slightly, from 2,260 to 2,323.

Verizon Communications, which has been bringing its fiber optic communications service to the state, has shown a growth in employment from 1,100 in 2005 to 1,200 in 2006 to 1,450 last year.

 CVS Caremark ,of Woonsocket, with its 6,298 U.S. stores and 2007 revenues of more than three-quarters of a trillion dollars, is by far the largest publicly traded firm based in Rhode Island. Here are the top 15 biggest firms, by revenue, with the number of people employed worldwide:

asmith@projo.com