Top private-sector employers.

TOP PRIVATE-SECTOR EMPLOYERS Rank Company Headquarters North Carolina Employment 1 Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Bentonville, Ark. 52,605 2 Duke University (1) Durham 32,850 3 Delhaize Group (2) Brussels, Belgium 28,450 4 Wells Fargo & Co. San Francisco 26,800 5 Novant Health Inc. Winston-Salem 24,100 6 Lowe's Cos. Mooresville 21,025 7 Bank of America Corp. Charlotte 18,000 8 Ruddick Corp. (3) Charlotte 16,000 9 Wake Forest University Winston-Salem 12,325 Baptist Medical Center 10 IBM Corp. Armonk, N.Y. 12,000 11 BB&T Corp. Winston-Salem 11,705 12 University Health Systems Greenville 10,455 of Eastern Carolina Inc. 13 Alex Lee Inc. (4) Hickory 10,050 14 Smithfield Foods Inc. Smithfield, Va. 10,050 (5) 15 Darden Restaurants Inc. Orlando, Fla. 9,990 (6) 16 Automatic Data Processing Roseland, N.J. 9,775 Inc. 17 Target Corp. Minneapolis 9,615 18 United Parcel Service Atlanta 9,490 Inc. 19 Debbie's Staffing Winston-Salem 8,700 * Services Inc. 20 Wake Forest University Winston-Salem 7,995 21 Sears Holdings Corp. (7) Hoffman Estates, III. 7,900 * 22 Ingles Markets Inc. Black Mountain 7,840 23 Mission Health System Asheville 7,680 Inc. 24 AT&T Inc. Dallas 7,600 25 Duke Energy Corp. Charlotte 7,580 26 US Airways Group Inc. Tempe, Ariz. 7,550 27 Moses H. Cone Memorial Greensboro 7,500 Hospital Operating Corp. 28 Compass Group PLC Chertsey, England 7,295 29 Belk Inc. Charlotte 7,105 30 CVS Caremark Corp. Woonsocket, R.I. 6,800 31 Time Warner Cable Inc. New York 6,000 32 Progress Energy Inc. Raleigh 5,895 33 Hillco Ltd. Kinston 5,675 34 Manpower Inc. Milwaukee 5,630 35 FedEx Corp. Memphis, Tenn. 5,610 36 The Home Depot Inc. Atlanta 5,500 37 Laboratory Corporation of Burlington 5,400 America Holdings Inc. 38 Verizon Communications New York 5,300 Inc. 39 Temporary Resources Inc. Winston-Salem 5,005 40 General Electric Co. Fairfield, Conn. 5,000 41 Aramark Corp. Philadelphia 4,900 Cisco Systems Inc. San Jose. Calif. 4,900 43 Boddie-Noell Enterprises Rocky Mount 4,885 Inc. (8) 44 Rex Healthcare Inc. Raleigh 4,820 45 Tyson Foods Inc. Springdale, Ark. 4,800 Xerox Corp. (9) Norwalk, Conn. 4,800 47 Walgreen Co. Deerfield, III. 4,710 48 Dollar General Corp. Goodlettsville, Tenn. 4,700 49 GlaxoSmithKline PLC London 4,500 50 SAS Institute Inc. Cary 4,475 51 Perdue Farms Inc. Salisbury, Md. 4,325 52 Family Dollar Stores Matthews 4,300 Inc. 53 Blue Cross and Blue Durham 4,295 Shield of North Carolina 54 J.C. Penney Co. Piano, Texas 4,290 55 Cracker Barrel Old Lebanon, Tenn...