Ingrams August 2023

DESTINATION MISSOURI BUSINESS CULTURE

THERE ARE PLENTY OF GOOD REASONS FOR A BUSINESS TO OPERATE IN MISSOURI. THESE COMPANIES GOT THE MEMO. The biggest jobs generators in the Show-Me State run the gamut of business sectors, with the major employers representing virtually every vital business sector: retail sales, health care, higher education, aviation and vehicle production, home improvement, financial services, insurance and in formation technology. Some are national power players, like Walmart, Ford, AT&T and Amazon. Some are Missouri-headquartered, with large parts of their work force here but many others stationed around the globe. If you’re a business owner who’s not familiar with the Show-Me State, see which companies making the biggest impact as Missouri employ- ers, then ask yourself: What do they know that I should? Employees Rank Company in Missouri 1 WalMart 41,399 2 BJC HealthCare 30,920 3 Washington University 19,617 4 Boeing 15,796 5 Mercy Health 15,084 6 SSM Healthcare System 14,600 7 CoxHealth 12,501 8 Schnuck Markets 11,887 9 Saint Luke’s Health System (KC) 11,500 9 AT&T 11,500 11 Oracle Cerner 10,500 12 Amazon.com 10,150 13 Hy-Vee 9,252 14 Lowe’s 7,986 15 Centene 7,825 16 Home Depot 7,664 17 Ford Motor Co. 7,500 18 Children’s Mercy 7,443 19 Target 7,179 20 Saint Louis University 6,882 21 Ameren 5,859 22 Honeywell 5,000 23 Casey’s 4,981 24 Edward Jones 4,865 25 St. Luke’s Hospital System (St. Louis) 4,701 Employment Powerhouses Drive Missouri’s Economy

Kansas. St. Joseph, less than an hour north of Kansas City, is a major force in animal-health research, manufacturing, and distribution. Combined, that corridor is home to operations from companies that account for 60 percent of global animal health revenues. And the Kansas City area recently moved into the ranks of communities boasting a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive-care center. Financial/Professional Services: Missouri is the only state in America that can boast of having two of the 12 Fed eral Reserve Bank headquarters—one in St. Louis, the other in Kansas City. National banks? We’ve got ‘em with Bank of America, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, and Regions Bank. Locally headquartered banks, including Commerce Bank, Central Bank, and UMB Bank, have been spreading their wings to be come regional players well outside the state’s borders. And the banks are solid: Only nine states have earned AAA rankings from all three rating agencies, and Missouri is one of them. Wealth management firms abound, overseeing tens of billions of dollars of client assets. And don’t forget the Midwest Value Proposition that allows Missouri law firms, accounting firms, engineering and architecture firms to hold down costs relative to their coastal counterparts, which makes for very competi tive bidding on new work with national clients. Health Care Services and IT: Cerner, now rebranded as Oracle Cerner, is still one of the nation’s biggest names in electronic health-care management and IT—that’s what made it so appealing to the Texas-based Oracle, and it re mains a major employer in the Kansas City area. Major health systems (see that separate section in this edition) provide services to 6.17 million residents of the state and millions more from bordering states—BJC Healthcare, As cension Health, Mercy Health, Cox Health, HCA Midwest Health, and Saint Luke’s Health System, among others. Military/Defense: In addition to the defense contract ing for weaponry, the state is home to thousands of service men and women based at the Army’s Fort Leonard Wood in the south-central part of the state and Whiteman Air Force Base near Sedalia, home to the B-2 stealth bomber squadron. When it comes to name-dropping for significant organizations, it’s tough to come up with any that are bigger than the Department of Defense. Transportation/Logistics: An explosion in industrial space demand and growth over the past decade has thrust Kansas City and St. Louis into national conversations with big time logistics and distribution centers like Chicago and Dallas. We’re not quite to their levels—yet—but with dozens of fast growth companies in the trucking and warehousing space and the merger to create Canadian Pacific Kansas City, the state becomes a bigger player in national distribution circles by the day. It boasts the sixth-most extensive highway system, largest waterway system, 99 airports, and two of the largest rail termi nals in the U.S., providing access from coast to coast.

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