If you hate working at a small firm, where everyone knows everyone, and you'd like to be a small fish in a big pond, here's a list of America's largest employers based on worldwide workforces, according to CBSMarketWatch (free registration required):
-
McDonald's
(NYSE:MCD) : 1.5 million employees globally -
Wal-Mart
(NYSE:WMT) : 1.5 million -
General Motors
(NYSE:GM) (including GMAC and Hughes): 341,000 excluding contractors -
United Parcel Service
(NYSE:UPS) : 359,000 -
Ford Motor Company
(NYSE:F) : 350,000 -
IBM
(NYSE:IBM) : 316,000 -
General Electric
(NYSE:GE) : 315,000 -
Kroger
(NYSE:KR) : 312,000 -
Sears
(NYSE:S) : 275,000, not counting seasonal workers -
J.C. Penney
(NYSE:JCP) : 250,000
An interesting aside: Once you have a company's employee count, it can be insightful to crunch a few numbers with them. For example, here are a few stats for Wal-Mart and McDonald's, which each employs roughly the same number of people -- 1.5 million. Except for market capitalization, the numbers are taken from fiscal 2002 reports:
Per Worker | McDonald's | Wal-Mart |
---|---|---|
Market cap. | $21,364 | $156,406 |
Annual revenues | $10,271 | $163,016 |
Annual net income | $596 | $5,359 |
Cash | $220 | $1,839 |
Long-term debt | $6,653 | $14,097 |
Cash from operations |
$1,927 | $8,355 |
These numbers don't tell you everything, but they do reveal how big a powerhouse Wal-Mart is on a few fronts we don't usually think about. As always, a few calculations can help you understand a company better. Learn more about how to evaluate companies in our How-To Guides and online seminars.
If you'd like to talk shop about Wal-Mart and McDonald's, drop by their respective discussion boards. And if you're looking for a job, visit our Ask the Headhunter board.