As the job market starts to heat up for the first time in nearly a decade, the hunt for top talent is on. Workers have more options now than they’ve had in a long time. So who’s offering them the best situations?  Forbes decided to find out by asking those in the best position to say: America’s employees.  In partnership with Statista.com, we asked more than 20,000 American workers at large U.S. companies, nonprofit institutions like hospitals, government agencies, and U.S. divisions of multinationals a simple question: on a scale of 0-10, how likely would you be to recommend your employer to someone else? How about other employers in your industry?  The result: a list of 500 employers, across 25 industries, where the workers like their jobs enough to spread the word.  Some of the results probably may not surprise you, like our top-ranked employer: Google Google, long one of Silicon Valley’s top perk palaces and known for its campus-like environment.  Of course, it isn’t all about creature comforts at the search giant, according to their HR chief, Laszlo Bock.  “People come visit Google all the time then go and install the lava lamps and bean bags,” he told Forbes. “There’s intense global competition for the best, most creative minds who are able to create the biggest, most important things, and that’s going to continue accelerating. That’s why it becomes even more important to create a kind of workplace where those people want to be.”  Full Coverage: Best Employers 2015  Fellow California tech firm Facebook placed second to Google in the I.T. category and 15th overall, with Apple Apple further down the list at No. 55.  One of the least cushy gigs imaginable placed near the top of the list: the Fire Department of the City of New York, where incredible daily danger is offset by tradition, training and duty. The FDNY came in as the No. 1 government employer and No. 17 overall.  Maine-based catalog company L.L. Bean topped the list of clothing, shoes and sports equipment manufacturers, and ranked fifth overall. In a feature in the current issue of Forbes, CEO Chris McCormick described L.L. Bean’s 5,300-strong workforce as its “secret weapon.”  “They are so good and so dedicated, I think much more so than other retailers,” he said.  Other standouts include BMW, first on the list of automotive companies and No. 7 overall, and Ohio-based Marathon Petroleum Marathon Petroleum, top of the pile for construction, oil, gas, mining and chemicals jobs and No. 3 of the 20,000 workplaces.  Wholesaler Costco, known for its relatively high wages, placed second overall, right behind Google. Other retailers placing well up the list include The Container Store The Container Store at No. 4 and East Coast cult favorite grocery chain Wegmans Food Markets at No. 9.  Here are the top 25 employers of 2015:  Methodology The 500 employers on our list were chosen based on an independent survey by Statista.com of 20,000 American employees working for large U.S. companies and institutions (minimum headcount: 2,500), and U.S. divisions of international firms. They were asked anonymously through several online panels if they’d recommend their employer, or any other employers in their industry, to a potential employee. The mix of respondents (gender, age, region, educational level, and ethnicity) in the sample is representative of the overall U.S. workforce. Where appropriate, subsidiaries of larger entities were combined for evaluation. The survey was conducted on companies in all industry sectors employing more than 2,500 workers in the U.S.  Full Coverage: Best Employers 2015  Follow me on Twitter and Facebook.
Whether you're looking to hire or looking to get hired this year, these are the 500 places to watch.