The on-line version of DS 82 had a lot of fields that said "optional", including employer name, so I left them all blank...only filled out the required fields. I will be REALLY good and ticked off if they reject my application for not providing information that they told me I didn't have to!
That's interesting. I'm using the PDF version of the form that I downloaded from the travel.state.gov webpage. Maybe I'll try the online version instead. This is exactly why I'm asking... They don't have a good track record of telling us when things are optional.