The Kansas City metro is the third largest beef-processing city in the US (behind Chicago and Cincinnati), and has the second largest rail network. The area has many factories, manufacturing plants, an official international trade zone, and the most foreign trade zone space in the nation.[1] It has a number of large national and international companies, including these:
Garmin, develops consumer, aviation, and marine technologies for GPS
Hallmark Cards, largest greeting card manufacturer in the world (Although Hallmark's gross revenues would generally be more than sufficient for inclusion in the Fortune 500 and 1000, those lists only apply to public companies. Hallmark is privately held by the Hall family and is thus ineligible for inclusion on the Fortune 500 or 1000.)
T-Mobile US, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world; prior to its merger with T-Mobile, Sprint Corporation had its world headquarters in Overland Park.
The federal government is the largest employer in Kansas City. In the wider metropolitan area, the federal government, either directly or through contracts, employs 41,500 people. The combined annual payroll of these jobs is more than $3 billion.[2]
The largest federal agencies in the Kansas City area by number of permanent employees are these:
The U.S. Postal Service employs more than 6,000 in the Kansas City area. Postal jobs are often counted separately from other federal jobs, because these positions are generally in the excepted service. Employees in these positions cannot earn competitive status or reinstatement rights for traditional federal employment.
Kansas City has many business publications. Two of the most prominent are the Kansas City Business Journal (weekly),[3] and Ingram's Magazine (monthly).[4] Many of Kansas City's business scions also frequently appear in the Independent, the local society magazine (weekly),[5] and KC Business Magazine (monthly).[6]