While the rest of the country frets about job losses, the employment locomotive for the biggest OC companies keeps rolling along.
Disneyland Resort in Anaheim increased its local workforce by 6% to 36,000 as of last month to lead this year’s Business Journal list of the county’s largest employers.
The No. 2 ranked employer, University of California, Irvine, jumped 31% to 34,085. About 6,000 were at UCI Health, which acquired four hospitals earlier this year and opened its new acute and ambulatory care and cancer care centers at UCI Health—Irvine.
“The balance of our remarkable growth in 2024 – approximately 2,000 new employees – was on the campus,” Chancellor Howard Gillman said in a statement to the Business Journal.
“We remain committed to expand our positive impact on our community and the world across all areas of expertise and service.”
Overall employment increased by a total of 6.5% to 224,971 among the 34 largest employers surveyed by the Business Journal. The rankings include Journal estimates for Irvine Company, Parker Aerospace and Wells Fargo.
The No. 3 on the Business Journal’s list was Providence South Division in Irvine, which grew 6.4% to 25,155.
Privately held Allied Universal, the security and facility services giant that has been growing by leaps and bounds globally, boosted its local workforce by 17% to 7,214 in Orange County, to come in at No. 7.
The company boasts about 800,000 employees globally, making it one of the world’s largest private employers.
Costco’s Seasonal Workers
MemorialCare in Fountain Valley rose 3% to 6,326 to take the No. 9 slot on the Business Journal’s list.
Big box retailer Costco took the No. 12 position with 9% headcount growth locally.
Membership-only Costco said the latest employee figures account for seasonal hiring, which is already underway. Of the 5,092 employees working in OC, 325 are seasonal employees hired to help over the holidays between October and the beginning of January.
The gains at the various companies may be reflected in OC’s labor statistics. In September, the unemployment rate dropped to 4.1%, well below the 5.3% rate for California as a whole.
Between August and September, OC showed an increase of 5,400 jobs outside the farming sector.
Kaiser, Rivian, Blizzard Trim Workforce
However, not all organizations showed growth.
Healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente trimmed its payroll by 4.6% to 10,293 employees but remained the fifth largest local employer on the OCBJ list.
Electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive LLC lost 14% of its local workforce to 1,883 as the Irvine-based company is buffeted by growing competition.
Blizzard Entertainment, the long-running biggest software employer in OC, fell off the list of top companies overall as its workforce dropped 25% to an estimated 1,471.
In 2023, Microsoft Corp. finalized its $69 billion purchase of Blizzard, which has led to the downsizing of the video game maker’s local headcount.
The company told state employment officials earlier this year that it was planning to lay off 140 employees at its Irvine offices in October.
