Orange County’s largest employers added about 2,300 jobs over the previous 12 months for modest growth of 1%.
The 84 companies on this week’s list employ 289,000, up from 287,000 year-over-year.
They’re ranked by employee total and have at least 1,000 workers apiece.
The four biggest are largely the same as last year, three of them—No. 1, Walt Disney Co.’s Disneyland Resort, No. 2, the University of California-Irvine; and No. 4, St. Joseph Health—repeating atop the listing, and one newcomer: the county of Orange, which checked in at No. 3.
Each of the four employs more than 13,000. Their combined staff numbers 85,000—29% of the entire list.
Top 10
The top 10 switched out two: the SoCal unit of Albertsons grocery chain, which climbed 10 slots to No. 7, and Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, which cracked the top 10 after hitting No. 11 last year.
The companies that dropped out of that upper echelon are:
n No. 12, California State University-Fullerton, which declined 13% to just over 5,000 workers.
n No. 13, Bank of America Corp., whose local pay rolls were flat, making room for newcomers.
A-Changin’
The upper crust is a snapshot of OC employment: three healthcare firms; two retailers; and one apiece in tech, hospitality, finance, defense and government.
A decade ago the top 10 had similar representatives and some of the same names but on a smaller scale.
In 2007, Disney reported 20,000 local workers and 133,000 companywide; this year it says 30,000 of 195,000 companywide are here.
That same year, UCI employed 17,500 and St. Joe 10,000; this year they’re at 23,600 and 13,800.
Some names have declined or disappeared—Sears was a bigger player back in the day, and Washington Mutual and AutoNation Inc. made the 2007 list.
Others have grown: Edwards Lifesciences Corp. in Irvine was No. 47 then with about 1,800 workers; it’s now at No. 15 with more than 4,300.
No. 42, loanDepot, with 2,000 workers, didn’t exist a decade ago.
Anomalies
The 84 companies and 289,000 workers are a good chunk of the local economy but not the whole picture.
Data from Inside Prospects Inc. in San Diego show more than 80,000 businesses and nonprofits in OC.
Employment Development Department figures show an OC labor force of 1.61 million and nonfarm employment of 1.55 million for an unemployment rate of 3.6% in September.
Some of Mark Twain’s contempt for and contretemps with “lies, damned lies, and statistics” creeps in here.
The EDD charts workers who live in OC and have nonfarm jobs—but employers on our list simply count workers, wherever they live.
About 40% of listed companies are Business Journal estimates.
Movers
Alcon Research Ltd.—unranked last year with 900 workers—grew 25% to 1,100 staffers and ranks No. 78.
No. 53 Goodwill of Orange County was up to 1,629 workers. It opened a store in San Juan Capistrano in October and got a $500,000 gift in May from Greenberg Gross LLP to expand its work and hire more staff.
Not So Far Away
Disneyland Resort generally holds steady or guides its numbers up about 1,000 workers or so—as it did this year.
Its recent hiring continued this month with two job fairs at its Paradise Pier Hotel and Grand California Hotel and Spa for housekeeping and food service positions.
Disney’s local employee count should get a healthy bump when its Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens in 2019.
The Anaheim resort area is seeing an uptick in employment overall driven by hospitality work.
A September groundbreaking of Westin Anaheim Resort came with the claim the construction will employ 2,000 people to build the seven-story, 613-room “four-diamond” hotel near Anaheim Convention Center.
There are about 8,000 companies and nonprofits and 149,000 workers in Anaheim, Inside Prospects said.
Irvine is tops in the county with about 8,500 entities and 190,000 employees.
