Opinion Published on 1 Jul, 2009
Richard Hall
World’s biggest employers

Richard Hall is chairman of Zenith International.
If you had to guess, who would you say are the world’s five biggest employers? Would they include any food and drink companies?
The Financial Times printed a top five on 23 June, sourced from ONS and Labour Force Survey:
- People’s Liberation Army – China 2.26 million
- Wal-Mart, US – 2.10 million
- National Health Service, UK – 1.56 million
- Indian railways – 1.41 million
- Indian army – 1.13 million.
So, Wal-Mart is by far the world’s largest private sector employer, with food and drink making a major contribution.
By comparison, the world’s largest food and drink producer, Nestlé, has 283,000 employees.
Source: BevBlog