15 New Jersey Employers Make Forbes’ ‘America’s Best’ List

NEW JERSEY — Fifteen companies doing business in the Garden State made Forbes’ new inventory of “America’s Best Employers By State."

The global COVID-19 pandemic caused big shifts in the workplace, Forbes noted with the release of the list last Wednesday. More employees are working remotely, and their priorities have changed.

As a result, Forbes said in a news story revealing the ranking, “employers have had to motivate talent, combat burnout and ensure the well-being and safety of their workers, while pursuing profits amid a sensitive political landscape that spurred new levels of corporate activism — not to mention a growing divide in what people want from institutions and companies.”

Forbes partnered with the market research firm Statista to compile the list, based on an anonymous survey of 70,000 Americans working for businesses that employ at least 500 people.

The final list ranks 1,382 employers receiving the most recommendations. Read more about the methodology.

In New Jersey, the first five companies in the rankings were:

1. Microsoft, headquartered in Washington, but with employees in New Jersey. The company has 103,000 employees in total.

2. Hewlett Packard Enterprise, headquartered in Texas, with 60,400 employees.

3. Weichert Realtors in Morris Plains, with 10,000 employees, founded in 1969.

4. NJM Insurance in West Trenton, with 2,500 employees, founded in 1913

5. Costco Wholesale, with 192,000 employees and founded in 1983.

Other top employers on the list included NJ Transit in Newark, with 11,000 employees, and Princeton University with 7,300.

Seven of the 15 companies on the New Jersey list are headquartered in other states.

To see the rest of the list, input New Jersey into the search bar.

Forbes also ranks the best employers nationally, but said its state rankings are intended to show how companies are perceived in different parts of the country.

Of the 1,382 employers ranked, 246 were ranked in more than one state. The U.S. Department of State, for example, was ranked in 31 states. Home Depot and Target were each ranked in 29 states.

The employers making the list universally value fair pay, safe working conditions and an inclusive work culture, Forbes said. This year, the survey questions addressed remote work benefits, the wage gap for women, and initiatives around diversity, equity and inclusion — themes that emerged as a result of the pandemic and growing political polarization, Forbes said.

Read more about the list and methodology here.