Covered Employment & Wages

Private Covered Employers
Size Class by Industry
March 2007
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The Rhode Island economy is characterized by a large number of small companies employing a small number of workers. As of March 2007, there were 33,044 private businesses in the state employing 408,124 workers. Nearly half the employers (48.2%) in the state have between one and four employees, however, they employ just 7.6 percent of the workforce. The largest employers, those with 1,000 or more employees, numbered 35 and employed 17.3 percent of Rhode Island’s private sector workforce. 
  • Smaller employers, those with less than twenty employees, represented 89.7 percent of all employers in the state and employed approximately one quarter (25.5%) of the workforce.   

  • Mid-sized companies (20 to 99 workers) employed 27.8 percent of the private sector employment and accounted for 8.5 percent of the firms.  

  • There are just 575 (1.7%) firms in the state employing 100 or more workers. Together, they employee nearly half (46.7%) of the state’s private sector employees.

 

Private Sector Employment

         
Size

Employers

Employment

Class Number Percent Number Percent
Total: 33,044 100.0% 408,124 100.0%
Zero 5,821 17.6% 0 0.0%
1-4 15,926 48.2% 30,994 7.6%
5-9 4,870 14.7% 32,019 7.8%
10-19 3,035 9.2% 40,976 10.0%
20-49 2,096 6.3% 63,487 15.6%
50-99 721 2.2% 50,017 12.3%
100-249 405 1.2% 62,694 15.4%
250-499 103 0.3% 34,669 8.5%
500-999 32 0.1% 22,675 5.6%
1000+ 35 0.1% 70,593 17.3%
 

   Top Ten Rhode Island Companies

   
Company Employment
Rhode Island & Hasbro Hospitals 6,332
CVS Corporation 5,683
Citizens Financial Group 5,500
Stop & Shop Co., Inc. 4,455
Brown University 3,943
Bank of America Corp.* 3,000
Women & Infants Hospital 2,880
Kent County Memorial Hospital 2,400
Shaw's Supermarkets 2,240
The Miriam Hospital 2,236
   
*Estimate
Source: RI Economic Development Corporation
The highest concentration of small firms is found in the Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting (98.2%) sector, followed by Other Services (95.9%), Construction (95.7%) and Professional & Technical Services (94.8).

The Manufacturing sector had the smallest percentage of small firms (75.1%) followed by Educational Services (75.8%), Utilities (79.2%), and Accommodations & Food Services (79.3%).

Of the 575 firms in the state employing 100 or more workers, more than half were concentrated in Health Care & Social Assistance (143), Manufacturing (98), and Retail Trade (67).

Among the state’s ten largest companies are four hospitals, two supermarkets, two financial institutions, a university and a pharmacy.

It is important to note that changes in size class data are influenced by the switching of employers from one size class to another as well as by new firms coming into the state.

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Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training
Labor Market Information
1511 Pontiac Avenue
Cranston, RI 02920-4407
Sandra M. Powell, Director

Phone: (401) 462-8740
Fax: (401) 462-8766
TDD: (401) 462-8006
E-mail LMI