Year In Review: Who were 2022's 10 biggest employers across Maryland?

Maryland, with its six million plus residents, may not be the biggest state, but even before the creation of the United States, the colony’s location in the mid-Atlantic was key to its economic prosperity.

While the state’s central location on the Eastern seaboard is still vital for companies like Amazon and its massive Baltimore-area shipping enterprise, the proximity to another center, the federal capital, provides Maryland with its most important source of large employers.

“(Maryland’s) location relative to Washington D.C., those federal employers and particularly the federal research-type, military installations have always been a big (employment) driver,” said John Hickman, director of Business, Economic and Community Outreach Network (BEACON) at Salisbury University.

Four of the state’s top 10 largest employers in 2022 were connected to the federal government: Fort George G. Meade military installation, the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, the Fort Detrick Campus, and the National Institutes of Health.

Hickman said the state has not been hit as hard in some recessions because of the federal government’s influence on the employment base. While the list provided by the state’s Department of Commerce excludes post offices, state and local governments, and public K-12 education systems, higher education is on the list, and comprised the state’s next largest category behind federal outposts. See what establishments made the top 10.

10 - Johns Hopkins University

The alma mater of the Gov.-Elect (Wes Moore) falls 10th on the list of the state’s largest employers. Primarily located in Baltimore, the university employs 16,850 people, including former U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski, who joined the faculty in 2017. The private research university, founded in 1876, is not part of the University System of Maryland.

9 - National Institutes of Health

Bethesda-headquartered NIH employs 17,900 people and comes in at number nine on the list. Arguably the most-well known employee, Anthony Fauci, stepped down from his role in government at the end of last year after a 54-year tenure at the organization. The federal facility is located just 10 miles from the center of Washington, D.C.

8 - Ahold Dehaize (Giant, Food Lion, and Martin’s)

The Dutch-based retail company owns several big-name grocery store chains that operate in Maryland. 17,950 Marylanders work for the corporation, which includes Giant, Food Lion and Martin’s. The Landover-headquartered Giant Food, which originated in 1936 in Washington, D.C., was bought by a Dutch conglomerate around the turn of the last millennium.

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7 - Fort Detrick Campus

A sign at the Veterans Gate at Fort Detrick Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases is shown Aug. 1, 2008, in Frederick, Maryland.
A sign at the Veterans Gate at Fort Detrick Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases is shown Aug. 1, 2008, in Frederick, Maryland.

Fort Detrick is named after a Frederick County native and U.S. Army physician who served during World War I. Today, the largest employer in Frederick County, the campus has 18,375 employees and retains its proclivity for medical research. Located about 50 miles from Washington, D.C., the federal facility houses the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, which came under safety-related scrutiny in the past several years.

6 - University of Maryland Medical System

The private corporation oversees at least a dozen hospitals statewide and has changed the physical landscape in West Baltimore since the system’s founding in 1984. The entity employees 29,300 people across its locations. Roughly a third of those employees are located on the Baltimore campus.

5 - Amazon

A sign at the entrance of the Amazon Robotics Fulfillment Center in East Baltimore on Dec. 9, 2022. Roughly 5,000 people are employed at the fulfillment center, accounting for roughly one sixth of the company's workforce in the state.
A sign at the entrance of the Amazon Robotics Fulfillment Center in East Baltimore on Dec. 9, 2022. Roughly 5,000 people are employed at the fulfillment center, accounting for roughly one sixth of the company's workforce in the state.

When asked about the list’s biggest change during the past decade, Salisbury University’s Hickman pointed to the eCommerce giant, which dominates retail out of its eastern Baltimore locations. “I'm pretty certain that Amazon would not be on that list 10 years ago,” he said. The company employs 30,000 total across its four fulfillment centers and more than a dozen delivery stations.

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4 - Johns Hopkins Health System

While the University of Maryland Medical System is apparent in West Baltimore, the Johns Hopkins Health System stretches over blocks on the eastern part of the state’s largest city. The system also includes hospitals in Howard and Montgomery counties. In total, the system employs 30,750 individuals.

3 - Naval Air Station Patuxent River

Located on the Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of the Patuxent River, the federal air station serves as a test center for naval aviation. The World War II-era site is located about 65 miles southeast of Washington, D.C. and employs 33,500 people. The Navy is the largest employer in Southern Maryland and about 70 percent of Pax River employees live in St. Mary’s County.

2 - University System of Maryland

Snow falls on the Salisbury University campus on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019.
Snow falls on the Salisbury University campus on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019.

More than a dozen universities comprise the state’s university system that employs 41,875 people. “Maryland’s average income is higher than most of the other states in the U.S.,” said Salisbury’s Hickman, “and that comes from having a highly educated workforce.”

That workforce is spread out across the following campuses: Bowie State University, Coppin State University, Frostburg State University, Salisbury University, Towson University, University of Baltimore, University of Maryland Baltimore, University of Maryland Baltimore County, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, University of Maryland College Park, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, University of Maryland Global Campus, and the USM Regional Higher Education Centers at Shady Grove, Hagerstown and Southern Maryland.

1 - Fort George G. Meade

The home to the National Security Agency and United States Cyber Command, Fort Meade is named after the Civil War general of Gettysburg fame. The installation employs 53,125 people, including an estimate for the NSA, which is not publicly reported. The 5,000-plus acre facility recently had over $17 million designated to it for road projects in Congress’s annual defense bill.

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The facility contributes to the state’s rank as 15th overall in tech employment, according to the CYBERSTATES 2022 report.

Dwight A. Weingarten is an investigative reporter, covering the Maryland State House and state issues. He can be reached at dweingarten@gannett.com or on Twitter at @DwightWeingart2.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Who were the biggest employers in Maryland last year?