MARYLAND AT A GLANCE

ECONOMY

EMPLOYMENT

[photo, Baltimore Farmers' Market, Holliday St. and Saratoga St., Baltimore, Maryland] In Maryland, State agencies concerned with employment (including unemployment insurance & job-seeker assistance) are the Division of Workforce Development and Adult Learning, the Division of Unemployment Insurance, and the Division of Labor and Industry. Each is part of the Maryland Department of Labor.

Baltimore Farmers' Market, Holliday St. & Saratoga St., Baltimore, Maryland, November 2007. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

Employers

Job Service

Unemployment Insurance

Unemployment Rates

Wages

Workforce
[photo, Window washers, St. Agnes Hospital, Catonsville, Maryland] Information about employment within State government agencies is available from the Office of Personnel Services and Benefits of the Department of Budget and Management. Those agencies employing the most workers include the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services; the Department of Transportation; the Maryland Department of Health; and the Department of Human Services.

Window washers, St. Agnes Hospital, Catonsville, Maryland, April 2011. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

[photo, Under Armour Global Headquarters, 1020 Hull St., Baltimore, Maryland] In 2025, Maryland had over 2.8 million nonfarm workers. Approximately 2,280,400, or 80.93%, of them were employed by the private sector. Federal, State, county and municipal government employees in Maryland numbered 537,400, or 19.01% of the workforce. Of these, 150,700 were federal workers, 116,500 worked in State government, and 270,200 were employed by county and municipal governments.

Former Under Armour Global Headquarters, 1020 Hull St., Baltimore, Maryland, June 2019. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

[photo, Domino Sugar plant and cargo ship, Baltimore, Maryland]

EMPLOYERS

Maryland had more than 696,710 small businesses in 2025, 99.6% of the State's total business number, with over 1.2 million employees, or 47.9% of all workers. According to Forbes, the annual average salary in Maryland in 2025 was $77,580.

Domino Sugar plant and cargo ship, Baltimore, Maryland, April 2015. Photo by Sarah A. Hanks.

[photo, DAP world headquarters, Baltimore, Maryland] Among the largest private employers in Maryland in 2025 were The Johns Hopkins University and The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System; Northrop Grumman; the University of Maryland; and the University of Maryland Medical System.

Corporate headquarters for such well-known businesses as McCormick, Lockheed Martin, Under Armour, DAP, Phillips Seafood, T. Rowe Price, and Goetze's Candy are in Maryland.

DAP world headquarters, Baltimore, Maryland, May 2015. Photo by Sarah A. Hanks.

Military, Federal, & Defense. In Maryland are over 350 federal, academic, and private research centers, 20 military facilities, more than 60 federal civilian agencies, and 74 federal laboratories. The Department of Defense employs more than 400,000 workers with over $26.9 billion in total wages. Fort George G. Meade is the largest single employer in Maryland with over 64,000 employees across more than 115 agencies and organizations. The military industry generated more than $60 billion for Maryland's economy in 2025.

Maryland is home to 15 of the nation's top 20 aerospace and defense firms. More than 10,000 aerospace and defense contractors in Maryland generate over $39.7 billion each year. In 2024, Maryland ranked second for research and development (R&D) federal obligations worth more than $21 billion.

In October 2026, Anduril Industries announced a $3.7 billion investment in a software-defined shipyard, Arsenal-2, at Tradepoint Atlantic within the Sparrows Point site in Baltimore County. The facility, which will produce components for Virginia-class (SSN 774) attack submarines under a $2.9 billion contract with the U.S. Navy, will support over 14,000 jobs, including more than 3,100 permanent jobs. The project will become the largest single private investment in Maryland.

In February 2021, the Salisbury Regional Airport (now the Salisbury-Ocean City: Wicomico Regional Airport) opened the East Coast's first Unmanned Aircraft Aerial Systems (UAS) hangar. The Naval Air Station Patuxent River along with its Webster Field Annex are some of the nation's most important UAS sites. The University of Maryland has the UAS Research and Operations Center located at the St. Mary's County Regional Airport.

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