Forbes this week released its annual rankings of the nation’s best employers, broken down into separate lists for each state.

The publication in an article explained that it partnered with market research company Statista on this compilation.

Forbes wrote the following about the list’s methodology:

To determine the list, Statista surveyed 80,000 Americans working for businesses with at least 500 employees. All the surveys were anonymous, allowing participants to openly share their opinions. The respondents were asked to rate their employers on a variety of criteria, including safety of work environment, competitiveness of compensation, opportunities for advancement and openness to telecommuting. Statista then asked respondents how likely they’d be to recommend their employer to others, and to nominate organizations in industries outside their own. The number of businesses ranked in each state was dependent on two factors—the number of qualifying employers and the size of the state’s workforce—and those with operations in more than one state had the opportunity to be listed multiple times. The final list ranks the 1,461 employers that received the greatest number of recommendations in each of the 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia.

In the end, 25 companies and public sector employers operating in the Yellowhammer State were named Alabama’s best employers for 2020.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), which is also the state’s largest singular employer, topped the state rankings. UAB’s clinical enterprise, including UAB Medicine and its UAB Hospital, alone directly employs more than 17,500 Alabamians.

Next, Boeing was named at the No. 2 spot on the Alabama list. As of 2018, the company generated an estimated $2.3 billion of economic activity in the state annually. Boeing spent $606 million with nearly 200 suppliers, supporting about 18,000 direct and indirect jobs as of the latest available data. The company’s in-state presence is largely focused in the Huntsville area.

Three more North Alabama job creators rounded out the top five.

Coming in at No. 3 was COLSA, which is headquartered in the Rocket City. Next came Polaris Inc., which operates an ATV manufacturing facility in Huntsville.

In fifth was Alabama rocket builder United Launch Alliance (ULA), which operates a world-class assembly facility in Decatur.

UAB was not the only higher education institution on the list.

Montgomery’s Alabama State University ranked sixth, while the University of South Alabama in Mobile was No. 12.

The aerospace and defense sector was well represented throughout the list, including Leidos (now the parent company of Huntsville’s Dynetics) at No. 14 and Lockheed Martin at No. 15.

Other notable inclusions include Montgomery-headquartered Alfa Insurance at No. 19 and Atmore-based Wind Creek Hospitality at No. 22.

It should also be noted that Atlanta-headquartered Southern Company, the parent company of Alabama Power, was ranked No. 10 on Georgia’s list.

Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn