Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) & The 10 Largest Corporations By Employees

Curious to learn what the largest corporations by employees are? While your average, medium to large sized business offers employment to hundreds or sometimes thousands of people, there are a few corporations out there with millions of people on their payroll.

We would like to present you with a list we have compiled of the largest corporations in the world based on the total number of people they employ. The figures are taken from the Fortune Global 500, and non-corporate organizations, such as the United States Department of Defense or the Indian Railways, which also have an impressive number of employees, were excluded from the countdown. The figures were published in July 2012 and are based on the previous fiscal year, according to the data released by each corporation. McDonald’s, which has approximately 1.9 employees on payroll, according to BBC, was also excluded from the countdown due to the fact that a significant proportion of these employees work in one of the numerous McDonald franchises.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT), the multinational US-based retail corporation, has emerged as the leading organization in terms of number of employees, with an impressive 2,200,000 workers. However, 6 out the 10 corporations have their main offices in China, which, coincidence or not, is also the world’s most populous country. Only one European corporation has made the countdown (in a style similar to our coverage of how to be successful in the stock market), the German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen.

Wondering who else has made it on the list of the largest corporations by employees? Let’s take a look.

No. 10: Aviation Industry Corporation of China, China

No. of employees: 480,147

No. 9: China Telecommunications, China

No. of employees: 491,447

No. 8: Volkswagen, Germany

No. of employees: 501,956

No. 7: US Postal Service, The United States

No. of employees: 601,601

No. 6: China Post Group, China

No. of employees: 889,307

No. 5: Hon Hai Precision Industry, Taiwan

No. of employees: 961,000

No. 4: Sinopec, China

No. of employees: 1,021,979

No. 3: State Grid Corporation of China, China

No. of employees: 1,583,000

No. 2: China National Petroleum Corporation, China

No. of employees: 1,668,072

No. 1: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT), The United States

No. of employees: 2,200,000