Stratospheric recognition
Iconic Houston-area landmark rockets to No. 1 in new list of best employers in Texas
NASA must be over the moon about a new ranking of the best employers in Texas.
A new list from Forbes and Statista puts NASA at No. 1 among the state’s major employers, both those based in Texas and those with a significant presence here.
NASA’s $1.5 billion Johnson Space Center complex occupies more than 1,600 acres in Clear Lake. The site, home to the space agency’s mission control and astronaut training operations, employs roughly 3,000 NASA workers, along with thousands of NASA contractors. NASA’s headquarters is in Washington, D.C.
It’s estimated that Johnson Space Center contributed more than $4.7 billion to the Texas economy in 2018.
On its career website, NASA cites several reasons to work at the federal agency. For instance, NASA says it offers “a range of challenging projects that will make a difference to society. You need only find the intersection between talent, passion, and opportunity.”
“To tackle the most complex problems, we employ the best of the best. Our world-class, accessible experts will become your trusted colleagues and mentors,” NASA goes on to say.
To come up with their ranking, Forbes and Statista surveyed about 70,000 Americans working at employers in the U.S. with at least 500 employees each. The final list features 1,382 highly recommended employers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Here are the 30 best large employers in Texas, as determined by Forbes and Statista.
Houston area
- No. 1 NASA (based in Washington, D.C.; Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake)
- No. 2 University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
- No. 3 Oceaneering International, based in Houston
- No. 4 MD Anderson Cancer Center, based in Houston
- No. 11 Bechtel (based in Reston, Virginia; major corporate hub in Houston)
- No. 13 Clear Creek ISD, based in League City
- No. 20 Air Liquide, based in Houston
- No. 23 Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, based in Pearland
- No. 25 Houston Methodist, based in Houston
Dallas-Fort Worth
- No. 7 University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas
- No. 8 Capital One (based in Richmond, Virginia; major corporate hub in Plano)
- No. 16 University of Texas at Dallas
- No. 17 Southwest Airlines, based in Dallas
- No. 18 Lewisville ISD, based in Lewisville
- No. 19 GM Financial, based in Fort Worth
- No. 21 City of Plano
- No. 22 Fidelity Investments (based in Boston; major corporate hub in Westlake)
- No. 28 Jordan Health Services, based in Addison
San Antonio
- No. 5 University of Texas at San Antonio
- No. 9 H-E-B (based in San Antonio; more than 300 stores in Texas)
- No. 12 University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
Austin area
- No. 14 Google (based in Mountain View, California; major corporate hub in Austin)
- No. 29 Dell Technologies, based in Round Rock
- No. 30 NXP Semiconductors (based in the Netherlands; major corporate hub in Austin)
Throughout Texas
- No. 6 IKEA (based in Sweden; five stores in Texas)
- No. 10 Costco (based in Issaquah, Washington; 35 stores in Texas)
- No. 15 Hyatt (based in Chicago; hotels throughout Texas)
- No. 24 Microsoft (based in Redmond, Washington; offices in Austin, Dallas, Friendswood, Frisco, Houston, San Antonio, and The Woodlands)
- No. 26 Sherwin-Williams (based in Cleveland; more than 300 stores in Texas)
