What Mc. Donald's, Wal-Mart, The DoD, China Petroleum And Foxconn Have In Common

  • With the end of 2015 just around the corner, it seems like a good time to look back at the year in figures.
  • So, let’s look into the world’s largest employers in 2015, according to the World Economic Forum.

Many believe that Indian Railways or the UK’s National Health Service are the biggest employers in the world – because they heard so a few years ago. Others think, just because it sounds quite logical, that the Chinese army is. But, the fact is, neither of these assumptions is correct.

According to information released by the World Economic Forum, the largest employer in the world in 2015 was none other than the U.S. Department of Defense. The DoD employed roughly 3.2 million people; way more than Indian Railways, with 1.4 million workers, or the UK NHS with 1.7 million people.

In fact, a few other companies and government entities also provide more jobs than Indian Railways or the NHS. The second biggest employer in the world is actually, like many imagined, the People’s Liberation Army (the Chinese military) with 2.3 million workers.

The top five is completed by retail behemoth Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. WMT, with 2.1 million employees (including 175,000 people who work for UK supermarket chain, Asda); McDonald's Corporation MCD, 1.9 million workers, although most of them work at franchised restaurants; and the UK NHS, with 1.7 million people.

Completing the top 10 are state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), State Grid Corporation of China, Indian Railways, the Indian Armed Forces and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.-ADR HNHPF.

Source: Statista

A few interesting things to notice here are: (1) China, India and the U.S., the three largest countries in the world by population, have nine of the ten largest employers in the world; (2) the UK NHS is so big it ranks among these humongous companies and organizations; (3) Hon Hai (a.k.a Foxconn) may not be very well known among consumers, but it is the main manufacturer for very famous and big companies like Apple Inc. AAPL, Microsoft Corporation MSFT and Nintendo Co., Ltd (ADR) NTDOY.

 

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.

Posted In: NewsEcon #sChina National Petroleum CorporationCNPCConsumer DiscretionaryDepartment of DefenseDoDIndian RailwaysNHSRestaurantsWorld Economic Forum
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