If you are job hunting in Columbus, it helps to know who the big employers actually are. The metro runs on a handful of large healthcare systems, two Fortune 100 financial companies, a deep bench of state and local government, and a fast-growing cluster of logistics and advanced manufacturing out toward Marysville, Rickenbacker, and New Albany. This page lays out the largest employers in the region, which sectors they sit in, and where to find their openings.
The biggest employers in the Columbus region
These are approximate central-Ohio headcounts pulled from the Columbus Region partnership and company reports. Treat them as ballpark figures rather than exact payroll counts, and note that the healthcare systems below should not be added together, since some share staff and affiliations.
| Employer | Approx. central-Ohio employees | Sector |
|---|---|---|
| Ohio State University | ~37,000 | Education / public |
| OhioHealth | ~25,000 | Healthcare |
| State of Ohio | ~22,000 | Government |
| JPMorgan Chase | ~17,500 | Finance (largest private employer) |
| Nationwide Children's Hospital | ~16,000 | Healthcare |
| Nationwide | ~15,000 | Insurance & finance |
| Mount Carmel Health System | ~10,000 | Healthcare |
| Amazon | ~9,250 | Logistics & fulfillment |
| Honda (Marysville, East Liberty, Anna) | ~8,850 | Manufacturing |
| Cardinal Health (Dublin HQ) | ~8,660 | Healthcare distribution |
| City of Columbus | ~8,600 | Government |
| Columbus City Schools | ~8,000 | Education / public |
| Huntington Bancshares | ~5,700 | Finance |
| American Electric Power | ~4,500 | Utilities |
| Victoria's Secret & Co. / Bath & Body Works | ~4,500 | Retail headquarters |
Healthcare is the anchor
No sector employs more people here than healthcare. OhioHealth runs a network of hospitals and care sites across the metro, Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center is a major teaching hospital, and Nationwide Children's is one of the largest pediatric systems in the country. Mount Carmel rounds out the big four. Between them they hire constantly for nurses, technicians, medical assistants, and support staff. If that is your field, start with healthcare jobs in Columbus and nursing jobs in Columbus.
Finance, insurance, and corporate headquarters
Columbus punches above its weight in finance. JPMorgan Chase is the region's largest private employer, Nationwide has its home office downtown, and Huntington is headquartered here as well. Add American Electric Power and a cluster of insurance and fintech firms and you get steady demand for accounting, operations, customer service, and technology roles. Browse finance and accounting jobs in Columbus to see what is open.
Government and education, the capital-city advantage
Because Columbus is the state capital, the public sector is unusually large here. The State of Ohio, the City of Columbus, Columbus City Schools, and Ohio State together employ tens of thousands of people in roles that range from administrative to skilled trades to technology. These jobs are worth knowing about because they tend to come with strong benefits and predictable hiring cycles.
Logistics and advanced manufacturing
Columbus sits within a one-day truck drive of roughly half the U.S. population, which is why Amazon and a long list of distribution centers cluster around Groveport, Obetz, Etna, and Rickenbacker. Honda's central-Ohio plants in Marysville, East Liberty, and Anna remain one of the largest manufacturing footprints in the state. For these roles, see warehouse and logistics jobs and manufacturing jobs in Columbus.
Who is actually adding jobs
A few projects are reshaping the hiring map, though timelines have moved around:
- Intel's New Albany chip plant is the headline project, with thousands of jobs planned. Be aware that the company has pushed its production timeline back, most recently to the early 2030s, so the bulk of those fab jobs are still ahead rather than open today.
- Honda's electric-vehicle hub and its battery joint venture are retooling the Marysville-area plants and adding roles as production ramps up.
- Amgen opened a New Albany biomanufacturing site and announced a further expansion that adds several hundred jobs over the next couple of years.
- The New Albany data-center corridor (Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft) is generating large amounts of construction work, though the permanent on-site headcount at finished centers is comparatively small.
The honest read: a lot of the most-hyped numbers are construction and future hiring, not jobs you can apply for this week. The day-to-day openings are still concentrated in healthcare, finance, government, logistics, and the service economy.
How to find jobs at these employers
Most of the companies above post on their own careers pages, but you do not have to check each one by hand. You can search current Columbus openings on CbusJobs, filter by category and pay, and set a job alert so new local listings come to you. If you want to know what a role typically pays here before you apply, the Columbus salary guide is a good place to start.
Headcounts are approximate central-Ohio figures from the Columbus Region partnership and company reports, and are not exact payrolls. Last reviewed June 2026.