Major Employers
Most of its jobs are neither high-tech nor high-paying, but McDonald's remained the area's top employer last year, with 32,000 local employees making and selling burgers, fries and salads. Ahold USA moved to second on the list from fifth, even though its Giant Food supermarket chain cut some positions, apparently because of a more complete accounting of jobs in the area for its U.S. Foodservice Inc. and online grocer Peapod. Discount giant Wal-Mart Stores has been expanding its presence in the region. That pushed media conglomerate Time Warner Inc., owner of Dulles-based America Online, off the list of top 10 employers. Time Warner has 5,143 local employees after some downsizing at AOL.
| Rank | Company | Total
Employees | Area Employees | Industry | | 1 | McDonald's Corp. | 438,000 | 32,000 | Food | | 2 | Ahold USA | 154,00 | 21,000 | Retail | | 3 | Northrop Grumman Corp. | 125,400 | 19,100 | Aerospace/defense | | 4 | Science Applications International Corp. | 42,636 | 15,814 | Information Technology | | 5 | Verizon Communications Inc. | 210,296 | 14,500 | Telecommunications | | 6 | Computer Sciences Corp. | 90,000 | 14,000 | Information technology | | 7 | Wal-Mart Stores Inc. | 1.2 Million | 10,293 | Retail | | 8 | Safeway Inc. | 191,000 | 9,000 | Retail | | 9 | May Department Stores Co. | 132,000 | 8,500 | Retail | | 10 | International Business Machines Corp. | 329,000 | 7,818 | Information Technology | |
