The pay role account; manufacturers still employ thousands, but the butcher, the baker and the hamburger maker are catching up.

• Author: Davis, Lisa
• Position: Includes related article on how the statistics are compiled

THE PAY ROLE ACCOUNT

To paraphrase George Bush, read our list.

It's our ranking of North Carolina's largest employers. And among the top 10, you'll find two supermarket chains, the world's largest hamburger purveyor and a university/hospital complex.

McDonald's is a mainstay of our economy?

Yep, and so are Hardee's and Burger King. And don't forget Food Lion, Winn-Dixie, the Belks, Sam Walton and, of course, the big bankers.

Note that many of the companies on our list are not based in North Carolina. They're in such places as Bentonville, Ark., and Largo, Fla., as well as Dallas, Chicago and Atlanta. You are likely to find the decision makers at IBM, No. 4 on our list, living in or around Armonk, N.Y., a well-to-do town about an hour's drive north of New York City.

That's not the way it was 15 years ago. Then, the executives who ran most of North Carolina's largest companies lived within shouting distance of one another, most in neighborhoods, such as Greensboror's Irving Park or Charlotte's Myers Park.

Once you've read this list, any doubt that North Carolina is a member of the global economy should be erased for good.

The large, home-grown manufacturers that traditionally have provided a major share of jobs in this state haven't disappeared, although some have new names because of mergers or takeovers. It is just that they have been joined by others, most of them service companies.

In 1977, a ranking compiled by a state government showed that the top four employers were textile manufacturer: Burlington Industries, Cannon Mills, J.P. Stevens and Cone Mills. (The ranking did not include numbers.)

In our list, only Burlington made the top 10, and it was No. 5. In 1977, 70 of the top 100 employers were in manufacturing. That number has dropped to 55.

Food Lion best demonstrates this dramatic growth in service jobs. In 1977, it was still Food Town and employed about 3,000 in North and South Carolina. It ranked 85th on the state list.

Today, Food Lion ranks No. 2, employing some 21,400 in North Carolina. Overall, the supermarket chain operates in 11 states and has about 42,000 employees.

Sara Lee, our No. 1 employer, makes hosiery, T-shirts and other textile products because of a series of acquisitions between 1979 and 1988 that included three venerable Tar Heel companies -- Hanes, Stedman and Adams-Millis. But Sara Lee also produces cookies, cakes and other baked goods -- many of which are sold by Food Lion, No. 10 Winn-Dixie and other...