A VW Golf VII car and a VW Passat are loaded in a delivery tower at the plant of German carmaker Volkswagen in Wolfsburg.Photograph by Fabian Bimmer — Reuters
It takes a lot of manpower for the companies on this year’s Fortune Global 500 list to generate $31.2 trillion in revenue—65 million people, in fact, roughly the same size as the population of Thailand. That is the combined workforce for the 500 companies with the world’s highest revenues. The following companies are the seven largest of the Global 500 with the most employees. Nos. 1, 2 and 4 on the overall Global 500 appear here. Noticeably absent is this year’s No. 3, Netherlands-based Royal Dutch Shell, which reported revenues of $431 billion but employs just 94,000 people, a fraction of the headcount of other top revenue generators.
Check out who landed at the top of the Global 500 when ranked by workforce size.
1. Walmart
Customers shop at a Walmart.
Employees: 2,200,000
Revenue: $485 billion
Country: U.S.
Sector: Retail Global 500 rank: 1
2. China National Petroleum
Vehicles refuel at a Petrochina Co. gas station in Hong Kong, China, on Thursday, March 19, 2015. Petrochina, the listed arm of China’s biggest oil and gas producer China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), is scheduled to report full-year earnings on March 25. Photographer: Billy H.C. Kwok/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Employees: 1,636,532
Revenue: $428 billion
Country: China
Sector: Energy Global 500 rank: 4
3. Hon Hai Precision Industry
Employees of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. work along a production line in the Longhua Science and Technology Park, also known as Foxconn City, in Shenzhen, China.
Employees work on a pylon in Chuzhou, Anhui province, January 13, 2014. Government-owned State Grid Corp of China is coming in as the biggest cornerstone investor in a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) worth up to $5.7 billion by Li Ka-shing-backed HK Electric Investments, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. REUTERS/China Daily (CHINA – Tags: BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT) CHINA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN CHINA – RTX17BWO
Employees: 921,964
Revenue: $339 billion
Country: China
Sector: Energy Global 500 rank: 7
5. China Post Group
Pedestrians walk past a China Post Group truck parked on the street in Beijing, China, on Thursday, May 17, 2012. China Postal Express & Logistics Co., a unit of China Post Group, received regulatory approval for an initial public offering. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Employees: 903,357
Revenue: $65 billion
Country: China
Sector: Transportation Global 500 rank: 143
6. Sinopec
Gas station attendants exchange yuan notes in Jinan, China.
Employees: 897,488
Revenue: $447 billion
Country: China
Sector: Energy Global 500 rank: 2
7. Volkswagen
Volkswagen Phaeton automobiles move along elevated conveyors inside the Volkswagen AG factory in Dresden, Germany, on Thursday, April 9, 2015. German industrial production was bolstered by investment-goods output in February, highlighting improved confidence in the recovery in Europe’s largest economy. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
Employees: 592,586
Revenue: $269 billion
Country: Germany
Sector: Motor Vehicles & Parts Global 500 rank: 8
