Need a Job? Here Are the Biggest Employers Across America

See which employers are based in the biggest U.S. cities.

By Joel Anderson June 28, 2018 Start a Business

America has had its share of company towns over the years, with some of America’s biggest cities becoming ubiquitous with their biggest employers — Detroit as Motor City, to Pittsburgh as Steel City and Cincinnati once going by the unfortunate nickname of “Porkopolis.” Even today, the biggest employer in a city can play an important role in the lives of its inhabitants.

And, depending on which city you call home, you might be near a very different main employer, according to a new study by GOBankingRates. The largest employers in America’s biggest cities are a varied bunch, but some companies are even the home to the biggest payroll in multiple burgs.

Here’s a look at which companies are the biggest employers in each of the 50 largest cities in America:

50 Biggest Employers Across America
Ranking	City	State	Company	Number of Employees
1	New York	New York	JPMorgan Chase & Co	29,000
2	Los Angeles	California	Kaiser Permanente	36,468
3	Chicago	Illinois	JPMorgan Chase & Co	15,229
4	Houston	Texas	Walmart	37,000
5	Phoenix	Arizona	Walmart	34,090
6	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania	Comcast Corp.	14,531
7	San Antonio	Texas	H-E-B	22,000
8	San Diego	California	Qualcomm, Inc.	11,830
9	Dallas	Texas	Texas Instruments	10,961
10	San Jose	California	Cisco Systems Inc.	14,000
11	Austin	Texas	H-E-B	12,198
12	Jacksonville	Florida	Bank of America Merrill Lynch	8,000
13	Fort Worth	Texas	American Airlines	25,000
14	San Francisco	California	Wells Fargo	8,195
15	Columbus	Ohio	Kroger	22,821
16	Charlotte	North Carolina	Wells Fargo	24,100
17	Indianapolis	Indiana	Eli Lilly and Company	11,479
18	Seattle	Washington	Boeing Co.	81,919
19	Denver	Colorado	United Airlines, Inc.	5,777
20	Bakersfield	California	William Bolthouse Farms	1,802
21	El Paso	Texas	T&T Staffing	5,348
22	Boston	Massachusetts	State Street Bank & Trust	7,500
23	Nashville	Tennessee	Hospital Corporation of America (HCA)	10,180
24	Detroit	Michigan	Rock Ventures	16,617
25	Portland	Oregon	Intel	19,300
26	Oklahoma City	Oklahoma	Hobby Lobby Stores	5,100
27	Las Vegas	Nevada	Wynn Las Vegas, LLC	8,250
28	Memphis	Tennessee	FedEx Corp.	30,000
29	Louisville	Kentucky	UPS	22,354
30	Baltimore	Maryland	Exelon	2,950
31	Milwaukee	Wisconsin	GE Healthcare	6,000
32	Albuquerque	New Mexico	Sandia National Labs	10,500
33	Tucson	Arizona	Raytheon	9,600
34	St. Louis	Missouri	Wells Fargo	5,418
35	Sacramento	California	Kaiser Permanente	10,517
36	Wichita	Kansas	Spirit Airlines	10,800
37	Kansas City	Missouri	Cerner Corp.	12,890
38	Atlanta	Georgia	Delta Air Lines	5,348
39	Cincinnati	Ohio	Kroger	21,646
40	Miami	Florida	American Airlines	11,031
41	Raleigh	North Carolina	Duke Energy Progress	3,700
42	Anaheim	California	Disneyland Resort	31,000
43	Virginia Beach	Virginia	GEICO	2,700
44	Pittsburgh	Pennsylvania	PNC	11,432
45	Oakland	California	Kaiser Permanente	12,287
46	Minneapolis	Minnesota	Target	8,200
47	Tulsa	Oklahoma	Walmart	8,500
48	Arlington	Texas	General Motors	4,484
49	New Orleans	Louisiana	Ochsner Health System	16,771
50	Tampa	Florida	Publix Super Markets	7,420

Financial Industry, Retail Most Likely to Span Multiple Locations

As more people opt to do their investing and banking online, one area where the need for physical locations is declining steadily is finance. But you wouldn’t know that by looking at this study.

Of the organizations that are the largest employers in more than one of America’s largest 50 cities, two are banks. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the top employer in both New York and Chicago, and Wells Fargo has the most employees in San Francisco, Charlotte, N.C., and St. Louis.

The same is also true of retail stores, with Kroger employing the most people in two Ohio cities — Columbus and Cincinnati. And Walmart, the biggest private employer in America, has the largest payroll for Houston, Phoenix and Tulsa, Okla.

Healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente is the largest employer in more than one city in its home state of California.

Traditional Industries on the Decline?

It’s also notable that some of the famed connections between a specific city and an industry don’t appear to be linked in the same way anymore.

For example, the top employer in Detroit isn’t Ford, General Motors or Chrysler — it’s Dan Gilbert’s Rock Ventures. Pittsburgh’s largest employer isn’t a steel firm, but rather, the bank PNC. Milwaukee’s top employer isn’t a brewer — or even a dairy. It’s GE Healthcare. And sunny Los Angeles, home to Hollywood and the supposed center of the entertainment industry, is one of the three cities where Kaiser Permanente is putting the most people to work.

So although those better-known industries might have helped define those cities in the public eye, it might be time for people to start updating their perceptions.

Click to keep reading about the best and worst cities to score your dream job.

About the Author

Joel Anderson

Joel Anderson is a business and finance writer with over a decade of experience writing about the wide world of finance. Based in Los Angeles, he specializes in writing about the financial markets, stocks, macroeconomic concepts and focuses on helping make complex financial concepts digestible for the retail investor.