Food Retailers, Restaurants Outshine Processors on Forbes’ America’s Best Employers List for 2019

With unemployment low and competition for employees fierce, the food industry is struggling to attract and retain top talent. Every year, Forbes surveys workers to discover which employers are doing the best job of creating an environment where people like to work.

Although the lists below look impressive (the greater food industry accounted for close to 10% of the America’s Best Large Employers list), the details suggest that food retailers and restaurants are doing a much better job than food processors of keeping their employees happy. Land’O Lakes, General Mills, and E&J Gallo Winery were the only processors to make the top 100. Cargill, the world’s largest food company, didn’t even make the list, while Nestle, the second largest, came in at #239.

Here are the food processors, distributors, retailers, and restaurants that made the 2019 lists for best large employers and best midsize employers.