| The number of low-paying service-providing jobs in stores, hospitals, restaurants and banks continued to rise last year in West Virginia.
Wal-Mart is the state's biggest employer 10 years in a row.
Goods-producing jobs in places such as coal mines, steel mills and chemical plants continued to shrink.
WorkForce West Virginia has released the annual list of the state's biggest employers.
West Virginia's top five private employers are Wal-Mart, West Virginia University Hospitals, Charleston Area Medical Center, Kroger and CSX/CSX Hotels (including The Greenbrier).
The second five were American Electric Power, Eldercare Resources Corp., Lowe's Home Centers, St. Mary's Hospital and Consolidation Coal Co.
Joe Jarvis, a WorkForce West Virginia data analyst, said Friday, "More than three-quarters of the businesses are service-providing, rather than goods-producing."
Tens of thousands of those kind of jobs have disappeared, from low-paying industrial producers to high-paying steel and chemical ...
Wal-Mart first became the state's largest employer back in 1998, Jarvis said.
Weirton Steel, based in Hancock County, was once the state's top employer.
Mountaineer Park, the gambling and resort center in Hancock County now ranks 11th.
Jarvis said "Most service-providing jobs are low-paying, particularly in retail and restaurant work, and in the leisure and hospitality industries."
Pilgrim's Pride Corp., a company that processes chickens in the state's eastern counties, ranked 14th on the new list.
Nineteen of the state's top 100 employers were hospitals, including St. Mary's Hospital, Cabell Huntington Hospital, Wheeling Hospital, West Virginia University Medical Center and Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital.
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