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Hospitals, state government among top employers in tri-county region

4 min read
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WHS Washington Hospital has reached an agreement to merge with University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

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Crown Castle is the second largest employer in Washington County, according to data collected in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Rick Shrum/ Observer-Reporter

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Courtesy of A. Mattucci

The Bailey prep plant is part of Consol Energy’s Pennsylvania Mining Complex.

The entity that was once Washington Hospital has grown tremendously since 1897. This venerable health-care facility, in fact, has outgrown its name.

In the 125 years since its launch, the hospital has expanded into Washington Health System, with 20-plus locations, 2,000 full-time and part-time employees, and 300 medical staff and 300 volunteers. The hospital in the city of Washington remains the organizational flagship, a flag that has added a lot of stars.

And that may continue. “We are always looking for opportunities for our organization to grow,” WHS president and CEO Brook Ward told the Observer-Reporter last fall. “We have to grow to remain healthy.”

Maintaining its own health is paramount for organizations similar to WHS, and the locally based system is operating with healthy staffing numbers. It remains the largest employer in Washington County, according to the state Department of Labor & Industry (workstats.dli.pa.gov).

The rankings are from data collected in the fourth quarter of 2022. Workstats did not provide specific worker numbers.

Washington Health System is not the only business contributing to what has become a robust workforce in a county where the unemployment rate has fallen from 5.0% in February, to 3.9% in March, to an April figure of 3.5%.

Workstats listed the top 50 employers in each of the 67 counties in Pennsylvania, and Crown Castle, the huge telecommunications service provider based in Houston, Texas, remains No. 2 in Washington County.

Crown Castle has about 5,000 employees at slightly more than 100 locations across the United States, including a large complex at 1500 Corporate Drive in Southpointe. The number of employees there could not be determined.

PathWays of Southwestern Pennsylvania is the county’s third-largest employer, according to the listing. The nonprofit is a social service organization that serves children and adults with physical and/or intellectual disabilities. PathWays, headquartered at 655 Jefferson Ave. in Washington, has five local locations: three in Washington, two in Waynesburg.

Giant Eagle Inc. and Wal-Mart Associates Inc. rank fifth fourth and fifth, slightly ahead of another health-care organization. Penn Highlands Mon Valley is sixth. Located in Carroll Township, the facility was known as Monongahela Valley Hospital until October 2021, when it joined DuBois-based Penn Highlands Healthcare.

The county itself is the seventh-largest employee within its borders, one spot ahead of Ansys, a multi-national engineering simulation software company based in Southpointe.

Canon-McMillan School District and Washington Trotting Association rank ninth and 10th.

Five other school districts are among Washington County’s top 50 employees: Peters Township (14), Trinity Area (16), Ringgold (25), McGuffey (43) and Charleroi (50).

Washington & Jefferson College is ranked near the top half, at 28th, and Canonsburg Hospital is 30th.

Workstats lists state government as Greene County’s largest employer, beating out two coal-related companies. Consol Pennsylvania Coal Co. ranks second. Consol operates the Pennsylvania Mining Complex, in Greene and Washington counties. It is the largest underground coal mine complex in North America, composed of the Bailey, Enlow Fork and Harvey mines.

Iron Senergy, which runs Cumberland Mine in Greene, is third.

Fourth through seventh are Waynesburg University (275 employees); GMS Mine Repair & Maintenance Inc.; the group employed by Greene County; and Wal-Mart Associates Inc.

Four school districts rank eighth through 11th, in this order: Central Greene, Carmichaels Area; West Greene; and Jefferson-Morgan. Washington Health System Greene follows at No. 12.

Fayette County, like Greene, has more state government employees than any other grouping. Nemacolin Woodlands Inc. ranks second, followed by Uniontown Hospital-WVU Medicine and Wal-Mart Associates Inc.

Connellsville Area School District has the fifth-largest grouping, ahead of employees of Fayette County and of Fayette Resources Inc.

Three school districts – Albert Gallatin, Laurel Highlands and Uniontown Area, in that order – close the top 10 in Fayette.

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