U.S. Military is the Largest Employer in the World

U.S. Military is the Largest Employer in the World

By Sue Chang

“Information Clearing House” – Travel on Uncle Sam’s dime and have taxpayers pay for your education—these are some of the perks offered by the U.S. military, and it appears its recruiting strategy is effective.

The U.S. Department of Defense has been named the largest employer in the world with 3.2 million employees on its payroll, according to the World Economic Forum.

The second largest is China’s People’s Liberation Army with 2.3 million on its staff roster and third biggest is Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT, +0.02% with 2.1 million employees.

McDonald’s Corp. MCD, +0.64% came in fourth with 1.9 million workers but the World Economic Forum noted the fast-food chain would be eliminated from the list if employees at its franchise restaurants weren’t counted.

World Economic Forum

“As the majority of its restaurants are franchises, this figure falls to 420,000 when they are excluded,” said the WEF.

World Economic Forum

The U.K. National Health Service comes in at fifth place while the remaining spots are taken by Chinese and Indian entities. Closing out the top 10 list is Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., also known as Foxconn Technology Group 2317, +0.45% the contractor for Apple Inc. AAPL, +1.33% and BlackBerry US:BBRY  among others.

 

 

With the militaries of three countries in the top 10, it should be noted that the list would look very different if only active duty troops were counted. By that measure, China has the largest standing military in the world with 2.3 million while the U.S. follows at 1.6 million and India is third with 1.3 million, according to GlobalSecurity.org, a military-focused website.

This article was originally published by Market Watch –

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