Our annual ranking of the world's largest corporations


Top companies: Biggest employers
Rank Company Global 500
Rank		 2011 Number of Employees ▾
1 Wal-Mart Stores 3 2,200,000
2 China National Petroleum 6 1,668,072
3 State Grid 7 1,583,000
4 Sinopec Group 5 1,021,979
5 Hon Hai Precision Industry 43 961,000
6 China Post Group 258 889,307
7 U.S. Postal Service 135 601,601
8 Volkswagen 12 501,956
9 China Telecommunications 221 491,447
10 Aviation Industry Corp. of China 250 480,147
11 Compass Group 432 471,108
12 Agricultural Bank of China 84 447,401
13 International Business Machines 57 433,362
14 Deutsche Post 98 423,502
15 McDonald's 410 420,000
16 Carrefour 39 412,443
17 Industrial & Commercial Bank of China 54 408,859
18 Tesco 59 406,088
19 Gazprom 15 401,000
20 Sodexo 495 391,148
21 Target 120 365,000
22 Siemens 47 360,000
23 China Resources National 233 350,524
24 Hewlett-Packard 31 349,600
25 Kroger 75 339,000
26 Panasonic 66 330,767
27 Jardine Matheson 275 330,000
28 China Construction Bank 77 329,438
29 Nestlé 71 328,000
30 Toyota Motor 10 325,905
31 Hitachi 38 323,540
32 United Parcel Service 177 310,010
33 Edeka Zentrale 342 306,000
34 HSBC Holdings 53 305,984
35 Robert Bosch 110 302,519
36 China Southern Power Grid 152 301,539
37 General Electric 22 301,000
38 PepsiCo 133 297,000
39 China Railway Group 112 294,761
40 Sears Holdings 245 293,000
41 State Bank of India 285 292,215
42 China Railway Construction 111 291,598
43 Telefónica 82 291,027
44 Bank of China 93 289,951
45 Deutsche Bahn 179 284,319
46 Bank of America Corp. 46 281,791
47 China North Industries Group 205 279,563
48 EXOR Group 45 273,460
49 Daimler 21 271,370
50 Berkshire Hathaway 24 270,858
From the July 23, 2012 issue
Top 50 Headquarters
MAPS
Top 3

Rank # of Global 500 Companies
U.S. 132
China 73
Japan 68
See the rest
Company 2011 Number of Employees
Wal-Mart Stores 2,200,000
China National Petroleum 1,668,072
State Grid 1,583,000
See the rest
Company 2011 Profits
($ millions)
Gazprom $44,459.6
Exxon Mobil $41,060
Industrial & Commercial Bank of China $32,214.1
See the rest
FAQ and methodology
All companies on the list must publish financial data and report part or all of their figures to a government agency. In the U.S., private companies and cooperatives... More
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