Exactly Who Are the Largest Global Employers?

There is a new list of the top global employers out today from My Global Career 500, compiled by a team of researchers for the myglobalcareer.com Web site. I’ve never heard of the site or this list before, so I was interested in their rankings. The list is similar to the annual Fortune 500 list of largest companies worldwide (that we excerpted in Workforce Management’s Data Bank column in the August 14, 2006 issue) except for one major point: The My Global Career 500 doesn’t list any companies in China. It also misses the U.S. Postal Service, which is the No. 4 global employer, according to Fortune.

This gave me pause since four of the largest global employers are Chinese companies, according to Fortune. So, why the big difference in the two lists? It’s hard to tell. Fortune is the bible of business coverage, of course, having been around for more than 75 years. Not only is the Fortune 500 the gold standard when it comes to lists like this, but it has stood the test of time and is regarded as the most credible ranking of its kind anywhere.

Myglobalcareer.com, on the other hand, describes itself as a “blog-based information resource by Third Set Media, a startup company in Lafayette, California. There are 300 million career links available on the Net, according to Google, but we believe the world needs one more, a category-leading site for those interested in exploring—or engaged in—global careers.” The company was founded and is run by a guy named Rusty Weston who used to work at Information Week.

I asked why this list seemed to miss China and got this response back from Weston: “We're ranking corporate employers rather than state-owned enterprises. (Otherwise, India Railways would have been No. 1.) In one case, Gazprom, we have a majority state-owned company but 49 percent of the stock is traded in public markets, so we made an exception for them. Plus, another key difference is that our companies all have a multi-country presence—thus they are global corporate employers.”

I understand what My Global Career is trying to do—show the largest global employers—and yes, I understand that state-owned companies in China aren’t places that most global job seekers are likely to look to for a job. But I don’t think the Web site does a very good job driving that point home. I look at lists like this all the time, and I was confused about the rankings. The list seemed to me to be setting itself up as a challenger to the Fortune list and was not completely clear that it is something completely different.

Although I applaud the effort to enlighten global job seekers, The My Global Career 500 doesn’t work for me if it chooses to ignore state-owned enterprises, China and the U.S. Postal Service. My guess is that this list is not going to be a challenge to Fortune anytime this millennium.

By the way, here are the two lists. See what you think.

The Fortune 500 list of largest employers worldwide (2005):

1. Wal-Mart Stores, United States, 1,800,000 employees
2. China National Petroleum, China, 1,090,232 employees
3. State Grid, China, 844,031 employees
4. U.S. Postal Service, United States, 803,000 employees.
5. Sinopec, China, 730,000 employees
6. Deutsche Post, Germany, 502,545 employees
7. Agricultural Bank of China, China, 478,895 employees
8. UES of Russia, Russia, 461,200 employees
9. Siemens Group, Germany, 461,000 employees
10. McDonald's, United States, 447,000 employees

The My Global Career 500 list of largest employers worldwide (2006):

1. Wal-Mart Stores, United States, 1,800,000 employees
2. Deutsche Post, Germany, 502,545 employees
3. Siemens Group, Germany, 461,000 employees
4. McDonald's, United States, 447,000 employees
5. Carrefour, France, 440,479 employees
6. Compass Group, United Kingdom, 410,074 employees
7. United Parcel Service, United States, 407,000 employees
8. Gazprom, Russia, 396,571 employees
9. DaimlerChrysler, Germany, 382,724 employees
10. Hitachi, Japan, 355,879 employees