The Biggest Employer in Each US State

The federal and state government is the top employers in almost every U.S. State. One unique exception is in the Big Apple, where the city’s massive municipal government is the largest employer in the entire state.

8 U.S. states have more active military personnel than any single private employer.

If excluding direct government and military employers and instead look at the private sector, health care and education are top employers in many cases. It’s worth noting that even in places where a university is at the top of the list, a significant employee base component often comes from affiliated health care facilities.

The industry of each state’s biggest employer

A few U.S. states bucked this trend to highlight regional industries. For example, General Motors is the top employer in Michigan. In Nevada, MGM Resorts employs over 55,000 people, but perhaps the most evident trend in this map is the dominance of a specific company Walmart.

The biggest non-government employer in each U.S. state.

Walmart is the largest private employer on the planet with over 1.5 million employees in the United States alone, that’s equivalent to 1% of America’s total private-sector workforce.

Today Walmart is the largest private employer in 22 U.S. states and has over 5,300 stores across the nation.

Walmart’s employers by state

Texas –  171,531
Florida –  108,321
Georgia –  59,371
Illinois –  54,698
Arkansas –  53,310
Ohio –  50,481
Virginia –  44,621
Missouri –  43,203
Tennessee –  41,487
Indiana –  39,667
Alabama –  38,041
Louisiana –  36,992
Oklahoma –  34,014
Arizona –  33,910
South Carolina –  32,267
Kentucky –  30,181
Mississippi –  24,898
Kansas –  20,938
West Virginia –  12,321
New Hampshire –  8,284
Montana –  4,776
Wyoming –  4,699

When you look at Walmart’s expansion over the past 50 years, it’s easy to see how the company came to dominate employment in the southern states. Walmart’s growth went hand-in-hand with a population boom across the south, and by the 90s blue big-box stores were popping up across the nations.

The company’s home state of Arkansas is still heavily influenced by the retail giant. By far, the State has the most Walmart locations per capita, and the company employs 4% of the State’s total workforce (1/3 of the State’s retail employees work for Walmart).

Walmart’s expansion over the past 50 years

Even though the retail sector is undergoing significant changes, Walmart is still the world’s biggest company by revenue.

The map below shows countries with a GDP higher than Walmart’s annual revenue ($482.13 billion).

Nations with a GDP higher than Walmart’s annual revenue

Amazon is now the nation’s second-largest employer, but unless there are more. While Amazon’s growth s great reliance on contract workers and the continued automation of their supply chain will likely keep employee counts below Walmart in the near term.