If you'velived in Rhode Island a long time, like the 1970s and before,you might remember us as the costume jewelry capital.
Back then, thestate’s economy was built by people making kissing-dolphin earrings, and countless higher-quality items, with notable firms like Coro, Monet,Swank and Speidel manufacturing here.
Of course, that time has passed, but to be honest, I haven’t been clear on what the state economy is about today.
If not the jewelry capital — what?
This week, I got an answer.
I decided to explore it after hearing that The Dunk has now become The AMP — for Amica Mutual Pavilion.
It got me wondering how many other local firms arebig enough to have swungthe $900,000-a-year naming rights.
In other words — who are the major corporate players here?
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What are the biggest companies in Rhode Island?
I asked Rhode Island Commerce, and my question got them crunching numbers from three sources: their own files, Dun & Bradstreet, and the Providence Business News Book of Lists.
From that, they tallied the state’s 90 or so biggest companies by employment and sent me their breakdown.
It taught me there are more sizable firms here than I realized.
In fact, Amica, which employs 1,000 to 2,000 people, ranks around 15th in size — I say “around” because job numbers change, so the Commerce list has many firms "tied" at each level.
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But the order is still clear, so let’s start with the number-one heavyweight Rhode Island employer.
I might have guessed CVS, which, believe it or not, is the fourth-biggest U.S. company by revenue, surpassed only by Walmart, Amazon and Apple.
Or maybe Hasbro, which is in the Fortune 500.
But this being aRI Commerce list, it more relevantly ranked companies by local jobs.
Far and away, the big dog by that metric is Lifespan, with over 10,000 jobs.
CVS and Care New England are right behind it, each with 5,000 to 10,000.
Those are all in the same general category — health. Thatgot me sifting through the rest of the listfor others in that field.
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I found many, including Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island and the state’s Blue Cross, bothwith 500 to 1,000 employees. And there are plenty more health players with hundreds of jobs each, such as Orthopedics Rhode Island, Thrive Behavioral Health, and HopeHealth, which does hospice care.
And other health-related ones, too, like Richard Branson's Virgin Pulse, which does well-being software, and North Kingstown's Dominion Diagnostics, a drug-testing innovator.
So if I had to pick one industry that seems todeliverthe most Rhode Island jobs in 2022, I guess it’s goodbye costume jewelry, hello health care.
Higher education is one ofRhode Island's other big industries
But I should add a bit of caution. This list doesn't include the thousands of other smaller businesses that add jobs to each industry. So this article is simply about what jumps out at me from this rundown of largest companies.
Not to mention there are lots of ways to categorize the state’s pillars of employment.
For example, state government is not on the list, but employs over 12,000. The City of Providence isn’t on it either but has around 1,400 workers. And if you added in all Rhode Island public employees at every level, including Block Island’s dog catcher, it’s tens of thousands.
But somestate workers do factor into another standoutcategory on the Commerce list — higher education.
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In terms of big players, that seems to rank right behind health care as a majorindustry.
Both Brown University and URI are the largest job-makers, with between 2,000 and 5,000 employees each. Johnson & Wales has between 1,000 and 2,000. Then there’s Providence College, Bryant, Rhode Island College, Salve Regina and Community College of Rhode Island each with 500 to 1,000, followed by Rhode Island School of Design, the New England Institute of Technology and Roger Williams University, all with many hundreds of jobs.
The Commerce list seems to portray another shift that has long been obvious here. Back in the 1970s and ‘80s, Rhode Island was inarguably a blue-collar state. One sign of that: mynewspaper’s late-day edition — the Evening Bulletin — was much bigger than the morning Journal because factory workers preferred reading that paper when they got home in the afternoon.
White-collar and working-class employers
Of course, there is still a big blue-collar workforce here, but the Commerce list showed me that the age of big mills has been eclipsed by big white-collar companies.
Citizens Financial Group, Fidelity and Bank of America all rank among the state’s top dozen employers with 2,000 to 5,000 jobs each.
Amica and Santander Bank are also in the top 20, both with 1,000 to 2,000 employees. The full list of 90 shows plenty of other financial biggies here, each with hundreds of jobs, including Washington Trust, Navigant Credit Union, BankNewport, Pawtucket Credit Union and Centreville Bank.
There's also a big law firm on the list, Chisholm, Chisholm & Kilpatrick, with 200 to 500 employees.
But there are still some major working-class employers here.
The biggest is General Dynamics Electric Boat, whose 2,000 to 5,000 employees make it a top-dozen Rhode Island company by size.
Hasbro, the game-maker, has 1,000 to 2,000, as does weapons developer Raytheon.
There are other standout manufacturers, like Amgen, Toray Plastics, Teknor Apex, Taco and one I hadn’t heard of called Charcuterie Artisans, a gourmet food manufacturer based in Burrillville. All employ 500 to 1,000.
By the way, so does Dave’s Marketplace. And also Providence-based United Natural Foods, which distributes organic eats.
Construction is big here, too, with Gilbane in the rarefied ranks that employ2,000 to 5,000, and Cardi Corp. contractors of Warwick, with 500 to 1,000. Dimeo construction has 200 to 500.
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I was also interested to see that we have one huge retailer employing 2,000 to 5,000. You have to love Ocean State Job Lot.
Oh, and also the Jan Companies that have 200 to 500 employees running their Burger Kings, Krispy Kremeand Newport Creamery lines.
And I never knew a place called Finlays here has 200 to 500 employees supplying tea and coffee to businesses, as well as "botanical solutions," whatever those are.
There isn’t room here to list all big employers, but I should mention the other few in the 1,000 to 2,000 level, including Bally’s Corp., which runs Rhode Island’s casinos, insurer FM Global, Verizon, and IGT, the gaming tech producer.
Oh, and there’s one more worth noting in the 500-1,000 range.
Tiffany’s has an operation in Cumberland that now seems to be the biggest firm keeping the jewelry manufacturing legacy going here.
And of course, there are more smaller jewelry-making companies holding up that torch. It's still an industry here.
But it seems the days of dipping metal into plating baths have faded a bit.
The jewelry capital?
No longer.
At least in terms of big employers, we’re now the health care, higher education and financial services state.
mpatinki@providencejournal.com
