Forbes Names 2021 Top Employers In Maryland

MARYLAND — The 2021 Forbes list of the best employers has been released, with specific rankings for Maryland, as well as the other 49 states and the District of Columbia.

To determine the rankings, market research firm Statista surveyed 80,000 Americans working for businesses with at least 500 employees. The respondents were asked to rate their employers on factors like work environment safety, compensation, opportunities for advancement and openness to telecommuting. Respondents were also asked how likely they would be to recommend their employers to others. Surveys were conducted from October 2020 to June 2021, accounting for some changes companies have made due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The best employer in Maryland is Southwest Airlines, according to Forbes’ list issued this week. NASA, the WMATA, Wegmans, T. Rowe Price and Nordstrom round out the top five in the rankings for Maryland.

These are the top employers in Maryland, according to Forbes:

1. Southwest Airlines
2. NASA
3. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA)
4. Wegmans Food Markets
5. T. Rowe Price
6. Nordstrom
7. Howard County Public Schools
8. Apple
9. GBMC HealthCare
10. Lockheed Martin
11. The Community College of Baltimore County
12. AstraZeneca
13. Anne Arundel Medical Center
14. Northrop Grumman
15. Department of Commerce
16. Johns Hopkins Medicine
17. University of Maryland, Baltimore
18. Verizon Communications
19. ALDI
20. Exelon
21. IBM
22. Johns Hopkins University
23. WL Gore & Associates
24. Microsoft
25. Home Depot
26. McCormick
27. Texas Roadhouse
28. Montgomery County Public Schools
29. University of Maryland
30. Staples
31. United States Postal Service (USPS)
32. United Parcel Service
33. Cisco Systems
34. Costco Wholesale
35. Under Armour
36. Booz Allen Hamilton
37. Capital One
38. Kaiser Permanente
39. Westat
40. Walgreens
41. United States Department of Defense
42. Wicomico County Public Schools
43. IKEA
44. M&T Bank
45. Target
46. Carroll County Public Schools, Westminster, MD
47. Panera Bread
48. State of Maryland
49. Adventist HealthCare (Maryland)
50. Kennedy Krieger Institute
51. Social Security Administration
52. University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS)
53. Morgan Stanley
54. Kroger
55. Towson University
56. Medstar Health
57. Charles County Board of Education
58. UnitedHealth Group
59. State Farm
60. LifeBridge Health
61. Sheppard Pratt Health System
62. University of Maryland Medical Center
63. Comcast
64. Bank of America
65. U.S. Department of Agriculture
66. Select Medical Holdings
67. Anne Arundel County Public Schools
68. Wells Fargo
69. Leidos
70. JOANN

Nationally, Target and the U.S. Postal Service appeared on the Forbes list of top employers in 32 states, tied for the most among any employers.

Bank of America, Home Depot and the U.S. Department of Defense are ranked in 29 states, Walmart in 27, FedEx in 26 and UPS in 25.

The full rankings are available online.

Although the pandemic hit the health care, education and retail industries among the hardest, employers in those fields dominated the rankings, according to Forbes. They combined to account for 41 percent of the full 2021 list, compared with 38 percent when the 2020 list came out.

Microsoft, for one, has moved to adopt a hybrid work model even after the pandemic ends, according to Forbes’ report. The tech giant founded by Bill Gates had the No. 1 spot in four states on the lists. Costco Wholesale tied with Microsoft in states where it holds the top ranking.