War fare: as a force for creating jobs amid the ranks of the state's top employers, military might is minuscule.

• Author: Richter, Chris
• Position: Largest Employers

There's no question that the military occupies an important place in the Tar Heel economy. Camp Lejeune is the main reason Onslow County leads the state in the percentage of income from government work--58%. More people--about 46,000 soldiers and civilians--worked at Fort Bragg late last year than held jobs statewide at Wal-Mart, North Carolina's largest for-profit employer.

As consumers, they helped support Wal-Mart and hundreds of smaller businesses. But you won't find many makers of military gear and equipment near the top of our list of the state's largest for-profit employers. Despite its large military presence, the state never developed a defense industry on the scale of Virginia's or California's.

More discouraging than the dearth of military contractors has been the continuing decline of the state's traditional industries--textiles, tobacco and furniture. Ten years ago, eight of the 20 top employers made textiles, apparel, cigarettes or furniture. Only three of this year's do. Many of the jobs have gone overseas or just gone away. Retailers and other service-sector employers have leapfrogged manufacturers on the list.

That doesn't mean traditional industries don't still play a significant role in the state economy. Gary Shoesmith, an economist at Wake Forest University, says some of these jobs will stay. They won't be on production floors but in management, technology and design. "That's something we can still do in this country."

And we can still say, "Hi, welcome to Wal-Mart." The discount-store chain, which has topped the employers list since 2001, added about 2,000 jobs in the state since last year. Target, Wal-Mart's chief competitor, increased its North Carolina work force 21%, adding about 800 jobs.

Not all retailers were so fortunate. In January 2003, Kmart announced that it was closing 18 store in North Carolina. Its employment in the state dipped from 7,500 to 4,500. Even some healthy companies cut payrolls. The state's three largest banks--Bank of America, Wachovia and BB & T--trimmed their combined statewide employment 2%.

The biggest loser was Kannapolis-based Pillowtex, which was the state's 31st-largest employer last year, with 5,105 employees. It shut down last summer. The textile industry has cut so many jobs in recent years that Shoesmith expects the bloodletting to slow. But losses in the furniture industry, also hit hard by overseas competition, are mounting. St. Louis-based Furniture Brands International--the industry's top employer in the state--shed 1,600 Tar Heel jobs since last year. "Furniture is the next textiles," Shoesmith says. "The furniture industry was a sitting duck. Now it's time to pay."

NORTH CAROLINA'S LARGEST FOR-PROFIT EMPLOYERS North Carolina Rank Company Headquarters employment 1 Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Bentonville, Ark. 41,700 2 Delhaize America Inc. (1) Salisbury 30,115 3 Wachovia Corp. Charlotte 27,900 4 IBM...