Wal-Mart is Pa.'s biggest employer

PHILADELPHIA-With 39,000 Pennsylvanians on its payroll, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has become the biggest employer in the Keystone State, according to a report in Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer

Citing a ranking by the state Department of Labor and Industry, the newspaper said the world's largest retailer has supplanted the University of Pennsylvania, which has 25,000 faculty and staff members, as the leading source of jobs. Giant Food Stores, the Carlisle-based unit of Ahold USA, is the state's third-largest employer, according to the Inquirer.

Declines in other state industries helped provide a work force for Wal-Mart, and an abundance of open land and an extensive rural and suburban road network provided opportunities to build stores, the newspaper said.

According to the report, Wal-Mart has 94 supercenters and discount stores, 20 Sam's Clubs, and four distribution centers in Pennsylvania. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman told the newspaper, "You can't ask for a better trade territory than Pennsylvania."