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Wake Forest University has been ranked the eighth best employer in North Carolina by Forbes magazine.
The university fell from it's place at the top of the list last year.
Forbes, partnered with market research company Statista, surveyed 70,000 anonymous Americans working for businesses with at least 500 employees. The final list – one for each state plus the District of Columbia – ranks the 1,392 employers that received the most recommendations.
Higher education, information technology, health care, and retail make up some of the top employers in the state.
Trader Joe’s ranked the best employer in the state followed by Salesforce, Microsoft, WakeMed and Vanguard. North Carolina State University was ranked sixth and the UNC Health was seventh. Wake Forest, WakeMed, N.C. State and UNC Health were the only employers in the top 10 who are based in North Carolina.
Out of 96 companies ranked in North Carolina, 10 employers are located in or have a large presence in the Triad. In addition to Wake Forest, they are:
- Volvo Group — 18
- Old Dominion Freight Line — 36
- Novant Health — 38
- Cone Health — 39
- UNC-Greensboro — 66
- Labcorp — 79
- Guilford County Schools — 85
- Hanesbrands — 90
- Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools — 95
According to TBJ research, Wake Forest ranks as the 15th largest employer in the Triad, with just over 2,900 employees. It is led by Susan Wente, who became president in July 2021.