# Largest private employer in the US?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-private-employer-in-the-us/218759>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 13, 2003, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-private-employer-in-the-us/218759 "2003-12-13T07:35:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-private-employer-in-the-us/218759/1 "2003-12-13T07:35:37Z")

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“Private” meaning “not government”, of course, and “largest” in both employees and revenue.

When you plug “largest employer in the US” into Google the first page says either Manpower or Walmart has the most employees. One of those links also goes to Forbes. . . which says Publix grocery has the most and mentions neither Walmart nor Manpower.

When it comes to revenue, Forbes says Cargill is the largest. Which I could buy, I suppose, until I realized that ADM isn’t even on the list and they should be up there as well, shouldn’t they?

Which is when I realized that none of these companies are publically traded.

So…then I tried a search with just “largest employers in the US” and gave up because there’s nothing really out there. Someone has to have a list someplace, right?

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**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-private-employer-in-the-us/218759/2 "2003-12-13T08:45:07Z")

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Walmart, by far. [From the Forbes site.](http://www.forbes.com/lists/results.jhtml?passListId=38&passYear=2003&passListType=Company&resultsStart=1&resultsHowMany=25&resultsSortProperties=%2Bnumberfield6%2C%2Bstringfield1&resultsSortCategoryName=rank&category1=%23+of+Employees+%28thou%29&searchParameter1=5Num%7C%7CGTE%7C%7C200&category2=%23+of+Employees+%28thou%29&searchParameter2=unset)

[Here`s a better list.](http://www.forbes.com/lists/results.jhtml?passListId=38&passYear=2003&passListType=Company&searchParameter1=&searchParameter2=&resultsStart=1&resultsHowMany=25&resultsSortProperties=-numberfield5%2C%2Bnumberfield6&resultsSortCategoryName=employees+%28thou%29&passKeyword=&category1=category&category2=category&fromColumnClick=true)

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-private-employer-in-the-us/218759/3 "2003-12-13T10:34:00Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Which is when I realized that none of these companies are publically traded.

Cargill is privately held, but the others you mentioned are publicly traded companies.

Publix Super Markets, Inc (PUSH). It has only about 123,000 employees according to [finance.yahoo.com](http://finance.yahoo.com)

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT). 1.4 million employees

Manpower Inc (MAN). 21,400 employees, which presumably counts only the people who work at Manpower offices.

Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM). 26,197 employees

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-private-employer-in-the-us/218759/4 "2003-12-13T10:38:51Z")

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Cargill’s website says they have 97,000 employees worldwide.