West Michigan's Largest Employers - Updated

[GRDadof3]

Thought this was interesting. I was talking to someone about Spectrum Health's growth and googled "West Michigan's Largest Employers" and our UP discussion came up:

 

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php/topic/48877-top-west-michigan-employers/

 

It's archived now so I can't add to it, but here was the list from back in 2009:

 

Largest West Michigan Employers:
Employer 2008 2005
Spectrum Health 14,300 14,000
Meijer 8,290 9,700
Steelcase 5,000 5,400
Spartan Stores 4,600 4,360
Herman Miller 4,300 4,400
Amway/Alticor 4,000 4,000
St. Mary's Healthcare 2,635 2,500
Gentex 2,600 1,900
Foremost 2,500 3,500
GM 2,500 2,400
Perrigo 2,500 2,450
JCI 2,450 5,000
Lacks 2,175 1,900
Metro Health 2,100 1,900
Fifth Third 2,000 2,700
Wolverine 1,925 1,500
Haworth 1,900 3,200
Benteler 1,700 1,500
GE Aviation 1,600 1,400

 

Here it is from 2013:

 

Spectrum 19,100

Axios (which didn't even exist back then I don't think) 8000

Meijer (local headcount) 7725

Mercy Health (GR and Muskegon) 6400

Amway 4000

JCI in Holland (which has been broken up I believe) 3900

GVSU 4000

Perrigo 3800

Spartan Nash 3608

Herman Miller 3300

Steelcase 3227

Walmart (local headcount) 3131

GRPS 2907

Gentex 2730

Fifth Third 2729

Farmers Insurance 2500

Magna Holland 2500

Haworth 2450

Metro Health 2383

Lacks 2300

GRCC 2254

City of GR 2050

 

 

Some of the notable ones further down the list (to me) include Roskam Baking at 1173, and Gordon Food Service at 1669. GM was on the list back then and are undoubtedly gone from the list now.

 

http://www.rightplace.org/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=b043a678-30b9-4132-8064-0cf3d03ad748

 

As was pointed out to me a while ago in a study done by the Kauffman Foundation, big companies are getting smaller and small companies are now creating all of the jobs (Spectrum notwithstanding).