PB2, CEI Engineering Top Largest List

The Northwest Arkansas Business Journal ranked the largest architecture and engineering firms by local employees in Washington and Benton counties.

You can see the full list here (PDF).

PB2 of Rogers ranked No. 1 with 260 employees in 2006, down 8 percent from 283 employees last year. Benchmark Group of Rogers came in second, with 212 employees compared to 192 last year, a 10 percent increase.

CEI Engineering Associates Inc. of Bentonville and Crafton Tull & Associates Inc. of Rogers had the No. 3 and 4 spots, respectively. Their percentage change in local staff is skewed because the two companies gave the Business Journal numbers for total staff last year, including employees outside Northwest Arkansas. CEI reported 123 employees this year, compared to 216 last year, and Crafton Tull reported 108, compared to 215.

Rounding out the Top 5 was Harrison French & Associates Ltd. of Bentonville with 73 employees, up 7 percent last year with 68 employees.

The overall total of local staff in the area decreased 6 percent from 1,409 last year to 1,314 this year, but that number is also off because of CEI and Crafton Tull’s numbers.

Interestingly, PB2 had the biggest decrease in number of employees and Benchmark Group had the biggest increase this year.