These Houston startups and companies clock in as the top employers in the U.S.
best of the rest
Whose boss is doing something right in Houston? Forbes set out to find out.
New rankings from Forbes identified the top employers in Houston and beyond, and that included both bigger companies and the country’s best startup employers. In Houston, the startups ranked as top employers are:
No. 120 — Imbuit
No. 310 — Code Ninjas (Pearland)
No. 353 — Axiom Space
No. 462 — Liongard
When it comes to more traditional businesses, Dr. Pete Pisters, CEO of MD Anderson Cancer Center, continues his reign. He was named a top boss in 2021. Now, the cancer treatment facility/research center he leads has been named one of the best employers in a new report.
MD Anderson Cancer Center ranked No. 10 among the country’s best large employers in the country. Staffing some 22,000 employees, the world-renowned cancer center also landed at No. 25 in Forbes list of America's Best Employers in 2021.
Other Houston-area companies on the list include: Houston Methodist (No. 37), Waste Management (No. 245), Sysco (No. 314), Shell Oil (no. 361), Halliburton (No. 389), Schlumberger (No. 403), ExxonMobil (No. 440), and BP (No. 487).
Other Texas employers ranked among the best large employers in the U.S. are:
- No. 10 — MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston
- No. 37 — Houston Methodist, Houston
- No. 38 — H-E-B, San Antonio
- No. 135 — USAA, San Antonio
- No. 140 — Keller Williams Realty, Austin
- No. 143 — Dell Technologies, Round Rock
- No. 214 — Texas Tech University, Lubbock
- No. 245 — Waste Management, Houston
- No. 279 — University of Texas at Austin
- No. 314 — Sysco, Houston
- No. 318 — Daikin Industries, Waller (North American operations hub for manufacturing, marketing, research, R&D, and customer support)
- No. 324 — Whole Foods Market, Austin
- No. 361 — Shell Oil, Houston
- No. 389 — Halliburton, Houston
- No. 403 — Schlumberger, Houston
- No. 440 — ExxonMobil, Houston
- No. 487 — BP, Houston (North American headquarters)
Elsewhere in Texas, Dallas reigns as the capital of Texas when it comes to the best big and small employers, according to Forbes, which put University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas at No. 9 among the country’s best large employers in the country and Dallas-based life insurance platform Bestow at No. 16 among the country’s best startup employers.
UT Southwestern isn’t the only Dallas-Fort Worth employer to pop up on the Forbes list of the best large employers. Richardson-based software company RealPage sits at No. 49; Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, No. 56; Plano-based Toyota North America, No. 253; Plano-based Cinemark, No. 370; Dallas-based Jacobs, No. 375; Dallas-based Topgolf, No. 394; Dallas-based Primoris Services, No. 399; Irving-based Fluor, No. 422; Dallas-based CBRE, No. 423; Irving-based McKesson, No. 429; Fort Worth-based American Airlines, No. 446; and Plano-based Keurig Dr Pepper, No. 483.
Dallas-based software company Slync.io, holding the No. 290 spot for best startups.
What follows are the other Texas employers ranked among the best startup employers in the country.
Austin
No. 104 — Apty
No. 121 — Homeward
No. 169 — SparkCognition
No. 186 — Outdoor Voices
No. 255 — Outdoorsy
No. 323 — ICON
No. 324 — The Zebra
No. 330 — TrustRadius
No. 335 — Innovetive Petcare (Cedar Park)
No. 387 — AlertMedia
No. 400 — Iris Telehealth
No. 410 — Wheel
No. 455 — Billd
No. 460 — Aceable
No. 470 — Shipwell
Forbes teamed up with data and research company Statista to develop the rankings of the best large employers and best startup employers.
