Boone County's Top Employers in 2009
The strength of higher education and the health care industry helped minimize the impact of the recession in the Columbia area. The Top 30 accounts for nearly 30,000 full-time positions in the area. As the chart below shows, manufacturing continued to decline. Hubbell, Kraft, Watlow, Quaker Oats and Square D lost a combined 523 jobs from the end of 2008 to the end of ’09. Dana dropped out of the Top 30. But the decline was more than made up for by increases at health care related work places, including University Hospital, the biggest gainer, Boyce & Bynum and ABC Labs. Two companies with particularly high growth in the past few years were Midway USA and VA Mortgage Center. The major insurance and banking companies showed slow but steady growth in the past five years. One manufacturing employer has dropped out of the rankings in each of the past five years.
Employer / Employees* / 1 Yr Change / 08 Rank / 4 Yr Change / 05 Rank
University of Missouri / 8,545 / +54 / 1 / +903 / 1
University Hospital & Clinics / 4,238 / +224 / 2 / +687 / 2
Columbia Public Schools / 2,428 / +42 / 3 / +398 / 3
Boone Hospital Center / 1,652 / +125 / 4 / +318 / 4
City of Columbia / 1,285 / +10 / 6 / +98 / 5
MBS Textbook Exchange / 1,269 / -45 / 5 / +334 / 9
Truman Memorial Veterans Hospital / 1,250 / +44 / 7 / +326 / 8
State Farm Insurance Companies / 1,104 / -41 / 8 / +25 / 6
Shelter Insurance Companies / 1,095 / +34 / 9 / +76 / 7
State of Missouri, Div. of Personnel / 611 / -195 / 10 / -158 / 12
Hubbell Power Systems (Centralia) / 585 / -215 / 11 / -230 / 11
Kraft Foods Columbia / 503 / -89 / 12 / -97 / 13
Columbia College / 423 / +84 / 17 / +98 / 17
Boone County Government / 377 / +13 / 16 / +20 / 15
Boyce & Bynum Pathology Labs / 377 / +69 / 21 / nl**
US Postal Service / 362 / -48 / 14 / nl
ABC Laboratories / 330 / +22 / 20 / nl
Columbia Insurance Group / 321 / -8 / 19 / +47 / 22
Boone County National Bank / 298 / +30 / 23 / same / 20
Midway USA / 284 / -23 / 22 / nl
Watlow Inc. / 270 / -50 / 18 / -30 / 19
Schneider Electric/Square D / 260 / -110 / 15 / -50 / 18
MFA Inc. / 250 / +10 / 29 / +9 / 26
US Department of Agriculture / 247 / -7 / 25 / nl
Frito-Lay/Quaker Oats / 230 / -20 / 27 / nl
Landmark Bank/First National / 228 / nl / nl / nl
VA Mortgage Center / 220 / nl / nl / nl
Woodhaven / 213 / nl / nl / nl
3M / 211 / -39 / 26 / -365 / 14
Columbia Daily Tribune / 204 / -52 / 24 / -80 / 21
Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance / 204 / nl / nl / -26 / 27
Nearest to break into Top 30 in 2009:
CenturyLink (195)
Dropouts in 2009:
Emery Sapp & Sons (Listed as having 431 employees in ̀08, but, by mistake, that included all employees in Missouri.)
Dana (246, No. 28)
Mid-Missouri Health Center (230, No. 30)
Dropouts in 2008:
OTSCON (238 employees in ’07, ranked No. 29)
Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance (244 in ’07, No. 27)
Dropouts in 2007:
Collins & Aikman (241, No. 27)
LSS Lenoir Woods (240, No. 29)
First National/Landmark Bank (237, No. 30)
Dropouts in 2006:
Century Tel/Link (214, No. 30)
Summit Polymers (229 No. 28
*Number of full-time equivalent positions
**Not listed
Source: Regional Economic Development Inc.; REDI Comments: Full-time, benefited employees. Numbers provided by individual companies, with the exception of “federal” jobs, which were provided by the Office of Personnel Management and Watlow Inc., which was provided by the Harris Online Directory.