9 Dallas-Fort Worth companies among best large employers in Texas, says Forbes

Several local workplaces are working overtime toward success, and it's paying off. A new list from Forbes and Statista ranks nine Dallas-Fort Worth companies among the state’s best major employers, both those based in Texas and those with a significant presence here.

They are:

• 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

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.

NASA can be over the moon about its new ranking as Texas' No. 1 large employer. The space agency'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.”

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, DFW's highest ranked employer, is no stranger to accolades. It landed at No. 9 on Forbes' list of the country’s best large employers in the country last spring.

“UT Southwestern has a dynamic culture of integrity, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration, and accountability that shapes the way we deliver on our mission of providing expert medical care, academic achievement, and transformative research,” Holly Crawford, executive vice president for business affairs at UT Southwestern, said in a news release then.

Here's the rest of the list of Texas' 30 best large employers, 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

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)