LITTLE CREEK Casino Resort, already the top employer in 2006, added a wing to its resort (above) and 71 employees to total 696 workers in 2007.

The government sector still employs the most people in Mason County – even more than the 3,002 working at 14 governmental entities in the list of top 50 employers.

That's more than twice as many people as are employed in the second-highest sector, forest products, which totaled 1,404 working at 10 companies in the top 50.

The Economic Development Council of Mason County counted 1,412 employees among the Washington Corrections Center, Mason County, PUD 3, City of Shelton, Mason Transit, Washington Department of Social and Health Services and Shelton Post Office. When you add another 1,232 in education in the largest school districts – Shelton, North Mason, Pioneer, Hood Canal and Mary M. Knight – it totals 2,644. Add 358 more from the Squaxin and Skokomish tribal governments and it comes to 3,002, which doesn't include all the smaller governmental entities in the county.

Forest products, including Simpson Timber Company, Olympic Panel Products, Mason County Forest Products, Skookum Lumber Company, Green Diamond Resource Company, Techwood, Belco Forest Products, Hiawatha, Manke Lumber Company and Camco among the top 50 employers, totaled 1,404 jobs.

Education would rank third as a separate sector. Retail, with 777 working at top-50 businesses Wal-Mart, Safeway, Fred Meyer, QFC, Lumbermen's and Gillis Auto Center, ranked fourth.

Fifth is tourism with 696 at Little Creek Casino Resort and 125 at Alderbrook Inn, both up sharply from 2006, for an 821 total, and many smaller tourism companies would increase that number.

The medical sector ranks sixth with 553 employed at Mason General Hospital and Shelton Family Medicine, although it would rank fourth with 942 if you added the care industry, which has 389 employees among Fir Lane Health & Rehabilitation Center, Alpine Way Retirement Apartments, Catholic Community Services and Shelton Health & Rehabilitation.

The care industry alone ranks ninth behind number seven manufacturing, which has 466 people working at Island Enterprises, Sims Vibration Laboratory, Stretch Island Fruit, Olympic Fabrication, Sensaria Natural Bodycare and Gerbing's Heated Clothing, and eighth-ranked shellfish. Taylor United, the lone shellfish company in the top 50, has 400 employees alone, and many others make a living at smaller firms in the shellfish-rich county.

Little Creek Casino Resort retained its first-place rank among the county's employers, adding 71 employees since 2006 with additions to its Kamilche facilities for a 696 total as last year's top employer. Washington Corrections Center, number one in 2005 and number two in 2006, dropped 34 more employees from 2006 and sits at number three now.

If you consider that the Squaxin Island Tribe has 696 at the casino resort, 117 at its Island Enterprises manufacturing facilities and another 237 in its tribal government, its 1,050 employees outdistance number two by 375. Add the Skokomish Tribe's employees and tribal employment totals 1,171.

Double-digit increases in jobs at top-50 employers from 2006 to 2007 in addition to the casino resort included Shelton School District, 612 to 675; Mason General Hospital, 461 to 495; Taylor Shellfish, 370 to 400; North Mason School District, 284 to 350; Squaxin Island tribal government, 209 to 237; Alderbrook Inn, 92 to 125; Stretch Island Fruit, 85 to 106; Exceptional Foresters, 78 to 96; Green Diamond, 81 to 91; Manke Lumber, 40 to 80; and Belco Forest Products, 41 to 60.

Significant drops occured at the prison, 615 to 581; Wal-Mart, 500 to 420; Mason County Forest Products, 190 to 170; Island Enterprises 138 to 117; and Skookum Lumber, 144 to 99.

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