does MD have a general or main "industry"? (Baltimore: employment, contractors)

[thealfa]

Alaska and Louisiana has their oil thing. California has entertainment/Hollywood, etc. Does MD have more than just crab cakes? is the shipping yard industry still an industry?

[North Beach Person]

Federal government and the associated private contractors related to that. The State has been pushing tourism for a couple decades.

[HandsUpThumbsDown]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

Federal government and the associated private contractors related to that. The State has been pushing tourism for a couple decades.

Fed employment, definitely. I can't understand the vehement calls for the heads of federal workers and support for a pay freeze and layoffs from non-fed Marylanders since they represent so much of the tax base and spending power.

[westsideboy]

Nobody wants to see somebody else lose their job, but sadly the employment world changes. The Federal government is spending too much money right now and is quickly become not solvent. When other employers, like GM, experience this problem, workers have to be let go. Something similar has to be done with the Federal government.

All of us citizens are essentially stock holders in the firm and should demand better returns on our investment. Too much money is being spend. What the citizens are getting for this money isn't useful services as much as it is red tape and continuing limitations on our liberty. I wouldn't hold my breathe for any drastic restructuring now, or in the future.

[searching4...]

westsideboy - I'd agree with the 'red tape' part and of course, lots of waste in the gov't but help me understand about limitations on our liberty?

[westsideboy]

Department of Homeland Security - An agency formed, staffed, and designed to collect information on US citizens. The courts have thankfully stuck down the most un-Constitutional of its actions, but how many illegal wiretaps and warrentless searches go on unnoticed?

Dept of the Environment - Don't built this here, don't tear down that this, don't trim that shrub. Remember, we must protect the last remaining habitat of the Lesser Sonoma Crabgrass Aphid.

Dept of Transportation - Hey states, you want this $ to build roads? You better pass all of these restrictive driving laws. Driving after having a couple of beer with dinner can land you in the slammer.

Dept. of Justice - Some state isn't on board with Big Brother's ideas about how to define or prosecute crime. Let's pass mountains of redundant laws so we can swoop in and be the hero when Anderson Cooper exposes some embarrasing situation in podunk nowheresville.

The list goes on and on.....

[Dusty Rhodes]

does MD have a general or main "industry"?



Were I to guess, it would be either catching or curing crabs.

[slowlane]

The largest employer in Baltimore is currently Johns Hopkins University and Health Care System.
Years ago, it used to be the Bethlehem Steel plant, and the huge Glenn L. Martin Aircraft factory, both of them in the Eastern suburbs of Baltimore. The Eastern Shore (Delmarva area) has enormous automated chicken farms (Perdue Corp.)

Statewide, a huge number of people work for the Fed. Govt. - this includes those commuting to downtown Wash. D.C. as well as those working in agencies located in MD territory, such as Andrews AFB, Patuxent River NAS, Aberdeen Proving Ground/Edgewood Arsenal, Fort Meade, Naval Ordnance Indian Head and White Oak, Social Security HQ near Baltimore, National Intitutes of Health Bethesda, Public Health Service HQ Rockville, Goddard NASA at Greenbelt, and Census Bureau Suitland. Also hundreds of bioscience and aerospace research firms in Montgomery County and elsewhere.

[Pilgrim21784]

The short answer is not really. Check out:
By Industry
It gives the 2009 workforce data by industry, look at the table towards the bottom.