Wal Mart > Comcast: The biggest employers in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia

It may own the tallest building in the state’s largest city, but Comcast is not the largest employer in Pennsylvania. It’s not even in the top 20.

Our source? Department of Labor and Industry data released last year. The top five statewide employers are Wal-Mart, the City of Philadelphia, Penn, the Postal Service and Penn State. Not a Comcast or a hospital to be seen in the top five.

The School District of Philadelphia appears at No. 7, CHOP appears at No. 21 and Comcast appears allllll the way down at No. 23. Here’s a look at the top 20 employers in Pennsylvania, as of the second quarter of 2014:

1. Wal-Mart
2. City of Philadelphia
3. University of Pennsylvania
4. US Postal Service
5. Penn State
6. Giant
7. School District of Philadelphia
8. Department of Defense
9. PA Dept. of Public Welfare
10. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
11. PA Dept. of Corrections
12. Lowes
13. US Dept. of Veteran Affairs
14. University of Pittsburgh
15. UPS
16. PNC Bank
17. Giant Eagle
18. Weis Markets
19. Home Depot
20. PA Dept. of Transportation

(Note: The Department does not provide specific number of employees because of confidentiality.)

Other highlights from the report:

– Among the top 50 employers in Pennsylvania is surprisingly No. 43 Eat’n Park, and if you’re from central or western PA, you know about this place. For those of you who are natives of Philly, it’s basically this restaurant where your grandparents take you to buy you a smiley face cookie when you’re 7. You lose your shit over the smiling cookie, and then several years later, realize pretty much everything else at Eat’n Park can be swallowed without chewing.

– Wawa is winning the gas station employment game in PA and falls as the No. 32 employer, whereas Sheetz — AKA inferior gas station that can’t make a good hoagie to save its life — falls at No. 37. Muahahaha.

Here’s a very well-produced video of some bros arguing over which is better:

– Temple University sits at No. 39 on the list of the state’s largest employers.

Click here to view the top 50 employers in Pennsylvania.

And now for a look at Philadelphia alone: The Department of Labor doesn’t separate out federal and state government entities when you look at employers county by county, meaning entities like the postal service and the VA are included in the federal government. So it’s probably unsurprising that the top employer in Philadelphia is the federal government.

Among places federal government workers have jobs in Philly are Dept. of Defense logistics locations, Medicare and Medicaid service offices, the federal courthouse, the postal service and a few inactive ship maintenance facilities left at the Navy Yard.

The top 20:

1. Federal government
2. City of Philadelphia
3. UPenn
4. School District of Philadelphia
5. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
6. Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
7. Temple
8. SEPTA
9. US Airways
10. Temple University Hospital
11. Albert Einstein Medical Center
12. State government
13. Independence Blue Cross
14. Drexel
15. Thomas Jefferson University
16. AlliedBarton Security Services
17. Comcast Corp.
18. Hahnemann Hospital
19. Pennsylvania Hospital
20. Aria Health

Here’s a look at the top 50 employers in Philadelphia.

Breakout facts from this section:

– AlliedBarton, a security company that contracts out to some of the city’s largest companies, actually employs more people here than Comcast Corp. does.

– In Philadelphia, Wal-Mart plunges to the No. 24 employer in the area, even though it was the No. 1 employer in the state of Pennsylvania. Makes sense, considering there are only five Wal-Marts in city limits.

– The only sports team that appears is The Phillies, which comes in at No. 41.