What are the largest employers in the world by number of employees?

The conventional wisdom in the United States and many other countries around the world is that most people are employed by small businesses. That sounds good, but isn’t true.

There are loads of definitions for the sizes of businesses. One that makes sense to me is that there are four sizes of business: micro with 1-4 employees, small with 5-19, medium with 20-199, and large with 200 or more. According to U.S. government data, micro and small businesses hire more employees than medium or large businesses, but that doesn’t mean that micro and small business employ more employees than medium or large businesses. Why? Because micro and small businesses also terminate the employment of more employees than do medium or large businesses. In other words, the smaller the business, the greater the turnover.

Most college and university students and recent graduates are employed by large organizations. These organizations are far more likely to have a team of talent acquisition professionals whose accountabilities include the hiring of students, recent graduates, and sometimes other early career candidates. They often have a well-thought-out process with a dedicated budget to accomplish this goal. Micro and small employers certainly employ students and recent graduates but rarely do so with any strategic aim. Instead, they tend to hire a person here or a person there when someone else quits or is fired, or if their businesses are growing.

So, which companies and other organizations have the largest number of employees? The largest 27 are: