If you earn a paycheck in Memphis, there is a good chance it comes from a relatively small circle of local heavyweights.
A new ranking from the Memphis Business Journal, released July 2, 2026, maps out who employs the city. More than 700 businesses, nonprofits, and government employers together account for an estimated 262,053 local jobs.
According to the Memphis Business Journal, this year's ranking of the largest employers includes 727 companies and reports 262,053 people working locally. The print edition spotlights 20 organizations, while a deeper online dataset runs much longer. The publication says it leaned on additional data and questionnaires supplied by firms to sharpen the list.
FedEx Still Dominates
FedEx remains the region's single biggest employer, and it is not especially close. At its Memphis headquarters, the company accounts for more than 30,000 area jobs, a concentration that has long anchored the city's economy, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute.
FedEx's own economic impact reporting further details the SuperHub's role in the global network and recent investments to modernize operations. Put together, that helps explain why logistics hiring continues to shape the metro's labor market and why any shift at the hub still ripples quickly through Memphis households.
Sector Snapshot
Federal data shows how those corporate headcounts fit into the bigger employment picture. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the Memphis metropolitan statistical area had roughly 652,400 nonfarm jobs as of May 2026, with trade, transportation and utilities accounting for about 189,000 jobs and education and health services contributing roughly 104,400, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Those industry totals put the Book of Lists company-level tally in context. The employer roster captures a large slice of the sectors that drive hiring across the region and helps connect the dots between the statistical tables and the actual name on a worker's badge.
How the List Was Built
The Memphis Business Journal says information for its Book of Lists was collected through local research and questionnaires supplied by individual firms. In cases of ties, rankings are decided first by overall employment, then alphabetically.
The paper notes that some figures are self-reported and could not be independently verified, so the list should be read as a snapshot rather than a forensic payroll audit.
For jobseekers, economic development officials, and neighborhood planners, the big picture is straightforward. Logistics employers such as FedEx, the region's major hospital systems, and public sector employers remain the dominant sources of hiring and economic weight in Memphis. Watch for continued hub modernization and health system staffing moves this year, since those decisions are likely to shape where new payrolls land and how commute patterns evolve across the metro.
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