What a piece of work is man; but it's getting hard to fit tightly in a job as recession flattens the payrolls of many North Carolina companies.

• Author: Maley, Frank
• Position: FEATURE - Company rankings

TOP PRIVATE-SECTOR EMPLOYERS Rank Company Headquarters North Carolina Employment 1 Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Bentonville, Ark. 53,740 2 Duke University (1) Durham 31,440 3 Delhaize Group (2) Brussels, Belgium 30,080 4 Wells Fargo & Co. (3) San Francisco 27,500 5 Novant Health Inc. Winston-Salem 22,000 6 Lowe's Cos. Mooresville 21,385 7 Aramark Corp. Philadelphia 20,860 8 Bank of America Corp. Charlotte 18,000 9 Ruddick Corp. (4) Charlotte 16,375 10 Wake Forest University Winston-Salem 11,570 Baptist Medical Center 11 BB&T Corp. Winston-Salem 11,505 12 Alex Lee Inc. (5) Hickory 10,500 13 United Parcel Service Atlanta 10,100 Inc. 14 IBM Corp. Armonk, N.Y. 10,000 Smithfield Foods Inc. Smithfield, Va. 10,000 * (6) 16 University Health Greenville 9,365 Services of Eastern Carolina Inc. 17 Automatic Data Roseland, N.J. 9,000 Processing Inc. 18 Target Corp. Minneapolis 8,500 19 AT&T Inc. San Antonio, Texas 8,400 20 Sears Holdings Corp. Hoffman Estates, 8,100 * (7) III. 21 Ingles Markets Inc. Asheville 7,795 22 Duke Energy Corp. Charlotte 7,790 23 Moses H. Cone Memorial Greensboro 7,630 Hospital Operating Corp. 24 Belk Inc. Charlotte 7,475 25 US Airways Group Inc. Tempe, Ariz. 6,860 26 Mission Hospitals Inc. Asheville 6,500 27 Daimler AG (8) Stuttgart, Germany 6,420 28 CVS Corp. Woonsocket, R.I. 6,400 29 Time Warner Cable Inc. New York 6,000 30 Progress Energy Corp. Raleigh 5,925 31 H&R Block Inc. Kansas City, Mo. 5,860 [dagger] 32 GlaxoSmithKline PLC London 5,600 33 The Home Depot Inc. Atlanta 5,535 34 General Electric Co. Fairfield, Conn. 5,500 Hillco Ltd. Kinston 5,500 36 Verizon Communications New York 5,355 Inc. (9) 37 Hanesbrands Inc. Winston-Salem 5,350 38 Boddie-Noell Rocky Mount 5,250 Enterprises Inc. (10) 39 FedEx Corp. Memphis, Tenn. 5,200 40 Tyson Foods Inc. Springdale, Ark. 5,000 Furniture Brands St. Louis 5,000 International (11) 42 Blue Cross and Blue Durham 4,860 Shield of North Carolina 43 Darden Restaurants Inc. Orlando, Fla. 4,835 (12) 44 Laboratory Corporation Burlington 4,800 of America Holdings Inc. 45 OSI Restaurant Partners Tampa, Fla. 4,725 LLC (13) 46 State Employees' Credit Raleigh 4,715 Union 47 Cisco Systems Inc. San Jose, Calif. 4,700 48 Rite Aid Corp. Camp Hill, Pa. 4,590 49 Compass Group PLC Chertsey, England 4,540 50 McDonald's Corp. Oak Brook, III. 4,405 51 Rex Healthcare Inc. Raleigh 4,400 52 Perdue Farms Inc. Salisbury, Md. 4,315 53 Starbucks Corp. Seattle 4,300 * 54 SAS Institute Inc. Cary 4,200 55 Brinker International Dallas 4,175 Inc. (14) 56 CBRL Group Inc. (15) Lebanon, Tenn. 4,155 57 Walgreen Co. Deerfield, lll. 4,080 58 Family Dollar Stores Matthews 4,040 Inc. 59 First Health of the Pinehurst 3,945 Carolinas Inc. 60 Eaton Corp. Cleveland 3,895 61 J.C. Penney Co. Plano, Texas 3,885 62 First Citizens Raleigh 3,870 BancShares Inc. 63 Dollar General Corp. Goodlettsville, 3,750 Tenn 64 The Pantry Inc. Sanford 3,710 65 Advance Auto Parts Roanoke, Va. 3,705 Inc. 66 Reynolds American Inc. Winston-Salem 3,700 67 The Goodyear Tire & Akron, Ohio 3,500 Rubber Co. 68 House of Raeford Farms Raeford 3,490 Inc. 69 CaroMont Health Inc. Gastonia 3,400 Pharmaceutical Product Wilmington 3,400 Development Inc. 71 YMCA of Greater Charlotte 3,350 Charlotte 72 Bojangles' Restaurants Charlotte 3,325 Inc. 73 SavaSeniorCare LLC Atlanta 3,315 * 74 Corning Inc. Corning, N.Y. 3,300 75 Best Buy Co. Richfield, Minn. 3,265 76 Bridgestone Corp. Tokyo 3,200 77 Kohl's Corp. Menomonee Falls, 3,165 Wis. 78 Royal Bank of Canada Toronto 3,000 (16) Tyco Electronics Ltd. Pembroke, Bermuda 3,000 Talecris Research Triangle...