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If you don’t know and had to guess, which company or organization do you think is the largest employer of residents of your state? Any idea? Here, let me help. Think of the store in your state that you might shop if you wanted to “Save Money. Live Better.” There are probably a lot of these in your state.
If you said, Walmart then you have a 22 in 50 chance of being correct. That’s right, good ole Wally World employs more people in 22 states than any other employer. 171,531 employees in Texas (number one) and 108,321 in Florida, all the way down to 4,776 employees in Montana and 4,699 in Wyoming.
However, if you look at by a percentage of jobs in a given state then the numbers are even more wild. For example, in Arkansas — Walmart’s home state — the 53,310 people employed there account for about 4% of the entire state’s workforce.
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As for the 28 other states, their largest employer is almost always a state university or a large healthcare system.
The map below contains data compiled by 24/7 Wall Street, who “reviewed employment figures for nonprofits and private and publicly held companies from company press releases, government data, business journals, local media reports, as well as statements from company representatives to come up with their numbers.”
You can view the entire list on their website and see the exact employment numbers for each state. For a quicker, at-a-glance look, check out the handy map below and a list of the NON-Walmart states that appear on it.
Alaska: Providence Health & Services
California: University of California
Colorado: Denver International Airport
Connecticut: Yale New Haven Health System
Delaware: Christiana Care Health System
Idaho: St. Luke’s Health System
Iowa: University of Iowa
Maine: Hannaford Supermarkets
Maryland: Johns Hopkins Institutions
Massachusetts: Partners Healthcare
Michigan: University of Michigan
Minnesota: Mayo Clinic
Nebraska: University of Nebraska
Nevada: MGM Resorts International
New Jersey: Wakefern Food Corporation
New Mexico: University of New Mexico
New York: State University of New York system
North Carolina: University of North Carolina system
North Dakota: Sanford Health
Oregon: Providence Health & Services
Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Rhode Island: Lifespan system of hospitals
South Dakota: Avera Health
Utah: Intermountain Healthcare
Vermont: The University of Vermont Medical Center
Washington: Boeing
Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin
Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist