Erie County, Pa., employment picture: The county's top industry might surprise you

This story is part of the Times-News’ Erie 2024 series, an annual report on the Erie community and its economy.

The names of Erie’s largest employers are familiar to most of us.

A list of the top 50 employers, compiled every three months by the state Department of Labor & Industry, was led in the most recent report by Erie Insurance, which has about 3,400 Erie-based employees.

That report, the most recent available, reflects employment through the second quarter of 2023.

UPMC Hamot and Wabtec ranked second and third, while state government, Walmart and Saint Vincent Hospital were Erie County’s fourth-, fifth- and sixth-largest employers, respectively.

The east entrance to the Wabtec Cor. locomotive-manufacturing facility in Lawrence Park Township is shown in January of 2023. The company ranks as Erie County’s third-largest employer.

Not all top employers make the top-50 list.

Nick Scott Sr., president of Erie-based Scott Enterprises, has said over the years that his family’s company, which includes hotels, restaurants and Splash Lagoon Indoor Water Park, employs more than 1,500 people, enough to land a spot near the top of Erie County’s largest employers.

But Scott Enterprises doesn’t make the list because its employees collect their checks from individual restaurants and other business, not from the umbrella company that owns all of them.

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Employment by industry

A companion list, also compiled by the Department of Labor & Industry, offer different insights into how we earn a living.

Oliver’s Beer Garden opened in 2021.

This listing ranks employment by industry, lumping together, for instance, all of the jobs in plastics manufacturing, which ranks as Erie’s fifth-largest industry by employment.

While Erie Insurance is Erie County’s largest employer, insurance carriers rank as Erie County’s seventh-largest industry.

What’s Erie’s largest employment industry? It’s not manufacturing or even health care; it’s restaurants and other eating places.

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That topped elementary and secondary schools in second place and individual family services in third place.

But the top ranking for restaurants is misleading. While all restaurants and eating places are lumped into one category, manufacturers are divided into different industry segments, including categories for plastics production, railroad equipment, food manufacturing and machine shops.

Put all of those types of manufacturing together and they employ more than 19,000 people in Erie County. That’s more than the number who work in leisure and hospitality, which includes restaurant workers.

Medical facilities among top employers

The growing importance of the medical sector is apparent aside from the fact that Saint Vincent and UPMC Hamot both rank among our top six employers.

UPMC Hamot, shown in a 2018 file photo, is Erie County’s second-largest employer.

Hospitals rank as Erie’s fourth-largest employer, while medical offices were the sixth-largest in 2023.

The ways that COVID-19 shaped industry numbers is also apparent in the numbers. In the second quarter of 2023, restaurants ranked as Erie’s largest employment sector. Three years earlier, in the second quarter of 2020, during a period when many restaurants closed their doors, restaurant employment ranked as the fourth-largest sector.

Another point of interest: Grocery and convenience retailers represent the county’s 13th-largest industry.

In Crawford County, Meadville Medical Center was the county’s largest employer, while restaurants and eating places provided more jobs than any other industry.

Meadville’s reputation as the Tool City was also reflected in the county’s top employment sectors. Metal shops ranked as the fourth-largest employment industry, while plastics ranked sixth and machine shops ranked No. 11.

Contact Jim Martin at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie County, Pa., employment picture: The county’s top industry might surprise you