10 Largest Companies in the World by Employees

A notable chunk of the world’s employment force is hired by the 10 largest companies in the world by employees.

We usually measure how significant and large a company is in terms of its financial size, whether in terms of revenue, market capitalization, or income. However, we can also measure the girth of a company in terms of the amount of labor involved in its operations. After all, a company can be considered to be significantly large when it can hire hundreds of thousands of people and still run a profitable ship.

However, we should note that there is the possibility that current employment numbers for many big companies may end up dwindling over the next few years. The threat to the current work force that automation poses is more ominous than ever, as technology improves to the point where substituting humans is becoming more affordable and efficient. In fact, we’re still struggling to grasp the impact of continued automation on the overall job market.

The largest employers in the world can be public or private companies, but they can also be governments and government-owned companies, and most of the time, they’re actually more often the latter, as running governments requires a huge amount of human capital; for instance, the Chinese army is 2.3-million troops strong and is considered one of the biggest employers in the world. However, for the purposes of this list, Insider Monkey has only included publicly-traded companies with well-disclosed financials and company information. This is to be certain about the exact number of employees for each company, as available figures for employee counts on private companies are only estimates. We have also included the market capitalization and revenue figures for these companies, as of June 2017 and the calendar year 2016, respectively, so that you can get a picture of how these companies are performing financially in proportion to their workforces.

The 10 largest companies in the world by employees are Agricultural Bank of China Ltd., food and support services company Compass Group plc, German mail delivery service Deutsche Post AG, security company G4S plc, Russian gas pipeline operator Gazprom PAO (ADR) (OTCMKTS:OGZPY), oil giant PetroChina Company Limited (ADR) (NYSE:PTR), Dutch staffing services provider Randstand Holding NV, British retail company Tesco PLC, car maker Volkswagen AG, and retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT).

Companies are ranked on this list according to the number of employees they had as of June 2017. Check out the list beginning on the next page.

If you’re interested in measuring a company in terms of its financial power, Insider Monkey also has a list of the 10 largest companies in the world by assets.

10. Tesco PLC

Number of Employees at Tesco PLC as of June 2017: 464,520

Market Capitalization as of June 2017: $17.28 billion

Total Revenue as of 2016: $17.60 billion

9. Gazprom PAO (ADR) (OTCMKTS:OGZPY)

Number of Employees at Gazprom PAO (ADR) (OTCMKTS:OGZPY) as of June 2017: 467,400

Market Capitalization as of June 2017: $43.58 billion

Total Revenue as of 2016: $29.24 billion

8. Agricultural Bank of China Ltd.

Number of Employees at Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. as of June 2017: 496,698

Market Capitalization as of June 2017: $163.63 billion

Total Revenue as of 2016: $13.68 billion

7. Compass Group plc

Number of Employees at Compass Group plc as of June 2017: 500,000

Market Capitalization as of June 2017: $34.71 billion

Total Revenue as of 2016: $7.08 billion

The next six companies on this list of the 10 largest companies in the world by employees each have more than 500,000 employees as of June 2017.

6. Deutsche Post AG

Number of Employees at Deutsche Post AG as of June 2017: 505,517

Market Capitalization as of June 2017: $44.69 billion

Total Revenue as of 2016: $16.45 billion

5. PetroChina Company Limited (ADR) (NYSE:PTR)

Number of Employees at PetroChina Company Limited (ADR) (NYSE:PTR) as of June 2017: 508,757

Market Capitalization as of June 2017: $196.22 billion

Total Revenue as of 2016: $67.18 billion

4. G4S plc

Number of Employees at G4S plc as of June 2017: 585,000

Market Capitalization as of June 2017: $6.54 billion

Total Revenue as of 2016: $2.50 billion

3. Volkswagen AG

Number of Employees at Volkswagen AG as of June 2017: 615,360

Market Capitalization as of June 2017: $75.13 billion

Total Revenue as of 2016: $60.52 billion

2. Randstand Holding NV

Number of Employees at Randstand Holding NV as of June 2017: 658,580

Market Capitalization as of June 2017: $10.84 billion

Total Revenue as of 2016: $5.83 billion

1. Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT)

Number of Employees at Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) as of June 2017: 2,300,000

Market Capitalization as of June 2017: $229.83 billion

Total Revenue as of 2016: $130.94 billion

The sheer vastness of Wal-Mart’s workforce puts it firmly atop the list of the 10 largest companies in the world by employees.

Disclosure: None