A list of the area's 25 largest employers, ranked by number of

Chicago-based full-time employees. Published Jan. 5, 2009.

Rank Company No. of full-time local employees as of 9/30/2008:

1 U.S. Government 78,000
2 Chicago Public Schools 43,910
3 City of Chicago 35,570
4 Wal-Mart Stores Inc. 23,453
5 Cook County 22,142
6 State of Illinois 18,124

Five of the top six employers in Chicago are government (By a

WIDE margin). (And government has been aggressively fighting

the only non-government employer in the top 6!!, and this is

WITHOUT national health care)