This city used to be a bedroom community. Now it’s home to these big employers
Long known as a bedroom community, a suburb that most residents leave when they commute to work, Meridian has grown to include dozens of large employers.
The city’s largest employer is the West Ada School District, with 4,500 employees. It is followed by St. Luke’s Health System, with 2,902 employees, according to Christine Myron, spokesperson for St. Luke’s.
At the Idaho Statesman’s request, the Idaho Department of Labor provided a list of Meridian’s biggest employers, with employment in ranges, not precise numbers.
| Rank | Employer | Avg. employee count |
| 1 | West Ada School District | 4,000-5,000 |
| 2 | St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center | 1,500-2,000 |
| 3 | Blue Cross of Idaho | 1,000-1,500 |
| 4 | Walmart | 1,000-1,500 |
| 5 | Scentsy Inc. | 1,000-1,500 |
| 6 | Albertsons | 500-1,000 |
| 7 | Engineered Structures Inc. | 500-1,000 |
| 8 | City of Meridian | 500-1,000 |
| 9 | Power Engineers | 500-1,000 |
| 10 | Fred Meyer Stores | 250-500 |
Source: Idaho Department of Labor
The list isn’t perfect. For one thing, the employment range for the West Ada School District includes the entire district, not just Meridian. While most of its schools are in Meridian, the district extends into Eagle, Star, West Boise and parts of unincorporated Ada County.
For another, Idaho Labor’s ranges may not line up with how the employers count their workers. St. Luke’s is an example. Idaho Labor says it reports an average number of employees. Myron said her number represents the latest number of employees in St. Luke’s Meridian hospital and clinics.
Idaho Labor gathers data from tax forms submitted by employers for unemployment insurance, said Jan Roeser, a labor economist for the department, in an email. And that leads to another problem with the data: Roeser noted that many employers do not allow the department to disclose employment levels even in ranges, so some employers may not be on the list.
Scentsy Inc., founded in 2004, is the youngest entity on the list. The company makes and sells fragrance products and operates from gleaming contemporary buildings on its campus off Eagle Road north of Interstate 84.
But while Scentsy is No. 5 on Idaho Labor’s list of Meridian employers, it earns less revenue than Jackson Foods, the convenience-store chain, and its companion Jackson Energy, a fuel-supply business; Kendall Dealership Holdings, a car-dealership group; and CBH Homes, Idaho’s biggest homebuilder, according to the 2022 Idaho Private 100 list of privately held Gem State companies. Those companies are based in Meridian too, and each was big enough to make the Private 100’s Top 10, though many of their employees are elsewhere.
The Idaho Private 100 list is prepared by the KPMG accounting firm in partnership with the Idaho Statesman and three other sponsoring businesses. Participation in the list is voluntary.
CitiCard, a call center and support arm of CitiBank; and Harvey Performance Co., which makes cutting tools for wood and metal working, are other larger Meridian employers, said Sean Evans, CEO of the Meridian Chamber of Commerce.
“In Meridian, we’ve never really had a tremendous number of large employers,” Evans said in an interview with the Idaho Statesman. “It’s just a wide variety of employers. We really haven’t had huge buildings that handle the large number of employees until the last probably five years.”
For years, situated in the “heart of the Valley,” Meridian residents mostly drove to jobs in Boise and Canyon County, Evans said. Many still do.
“You have people that bought homes here, they live here, their kids went to school here, but they are commuting to Boise,” Evans said. “Or they are commuting to Canyon County for the more blue-collar industrial jobs.”
He said there has been a shift in the Meridian business community in recent years. Meridian still supports a large number of homes and fewer large employers than Boise, but smaller offices have relocated to Meridian.
The Ten Mile Crossing development, with office space, restaurants, and bank space, has attracted businesses relocating from Boise, Evans said. He also said Eagle View Landing, an office and retail development that is going up near Interstate 84 and Eagle Road, will bring in more employers.
“I think you’re going to continue to see those more executive-level, mid-level office tenants look at Meridian as a destination for their operations, because it’s a little more central, there is less of a commute and fewer parking challenges than in Boise,” Evans said.
In neighboring Kuna and Boise, technology giants Micron and Meta plan to build new centers. Asked if Meridian hopes to be home to the next big technology-company expansion, Evans said it is already home to smaller technology companies like Zennify, a tech consulting firm. He also said Meridian lacks the large open spaces for industrial or manufacturing centers that require large acreages.
“I think you’re gonna continue to see that retail, and you’re gonna see commercial space continue to develop, for those offices,” Evans said.
This story was originally published January 23, 2023 at 4:00 AM.
