Can anyone help me locate this fact on the web ?
Any help would be most appreciated.
Thanks all 
Bump
Didn’t find statistics, but a few minutes of deep thought leads me to believe that a large minority or small majority of companies worldwide have less than 50 employees, especially if you consider large international corporations and conglomerates as single entities.
“Company” is a very generic term. I use it to describe any entity conducting a business utilized by the public regardless of its type (i.e., sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, d/b/a, etc.).
If, however, you mean publicly traded corporations, the results, of course, are probably very different.
I was considering any incorporated vehicle. Any idea of percentages ? I though about 75% of companies globally would have less than 50 employees. Especially when you think of all the shops and petrol stations and restaurants…
Anyone know ???
Here’s some statistics for the U.S. only:
No. of No. of
Employees Firms Percentage
<5 3,389,161 60.4%
5-9 1,012,954 18.1%
10-19 605,693 10.8%
20-99 501,848 8.9%
100-499 81,347 1.5%
>499 16,740 0.3%
S0 nearly 90% of the businesses in the US have under 20 employees, and 98% have under 100. Of course, that doesn’t exactly answer your question, but it’s a start.
That’s great. Many thanks for all your help !!!
Hmm well I’d suspect in America at least that most of our restaurants and “petrol stations” are franchised. So even though your local BP station only has 10 employees, they are employees of the BP Corporation which has lots and lots of employees worldwide. Same with restaurants, movie theaters and franchised stores.
Small shops tho, yeah that’s a good chunk of small emplyee numbers but most likely not 75%.
Your second sentence does not follow from your first. Logically, the franchisee’s employees are his or her employees, and not anyone else’s.
I disagree, ZipperJJ. Being franchised gives a particular location an association with the franchisor and use of various common names and products, but the owner of that franchised location is, in fact, the employer of the people working at that location. The employee of a particular Domino’s Pizza franchise is paid by and governed by the franchisee, not the franchisor.
I’ll stand in ** Zipper’s ** corner in regards to the OP>How many ** Companies ** have x employees.
No matter who pays the ** Dominos ** pizza flipper it’s still Domino’s (the companies specs,ingredients) and not Sal’s on the corner.They have to toe the company line in performance to maintain that business (or so I’ve been told).Hardly a stand alone operation.
Perhaps ** Achilles ** can clarify,eg,# of people employed in * individual * businessess vs.franchisees.
Those #s tell a remarkable history/societal story.Or maybe that’s another thread.
Hmm I’m confused tho. When I used to work at a Cinemark theater, my checks came from corporate HQ and were signed by a corporate person, not someone local. At least I’m pretty sure.
You’re saying that Applebees, Speedway, and The Gap employees are all paid by she shop owner and not corporate?
How does this work out when you have a new franchise opening in Nowheresville and no one shops there - how do those people get paid? Wouldn’t they be paid with income from ALL of the franchises as a collective?
There seems to be some confusion between franchises and locations.
Some companies are franchised. This means that they sell the right to use their names and products to an outside party who can then set up shop as a outlet for the company – in addition, many of these franchised companies offer their franchisees some support services, such as assistance in site location, permitting, and other startup activities. Many fast food and most gas stations are set up this way.
Most companies (KMart, Wal-Mart, The Gap, among others) aren’t franchised. The locations they operate are owned / leased by the company. The people who work in those locations are employees of the parent company. ZipperJJ, if your paycheck came from the corporate headquarters, then you were not working at a franchise.
Example: Locally, there is a company called Casper whose sole business is operating McDonald’s franchises. In addition to their locations, there are other McDonald’s locations – some are franchised by other parties, and some are operated by McDonald’s, Inc. All of the employees who work in the Casper locations are employees of Casper Inc. All of the employees who work at the McD Inc locations are employees of McDonald’s, Inc. The other locations’ employees work for the owners of their franchises.
Thanks Bambi, you have fought some ignorance today
So is the OP’s assumption correct that 75% of companies worldwide are probably under 50 employees, considering the difference between FRANCHISES and LOCATIONS?
I would assume so. I know that the statistics posted above from BizStats differentiate between the two. The franchise employees are counted as members only of the company that operates the location. So if a sole proprietor owns and operates a Taco Bell with 15 people as his only business, then he is included as a 15-person company in the statistics. If he owns 2 Taco Bells, one with 15 and one with 30, then he is counted as a 45-person company. My company, with its warehouses, offices, and 800 retail outlets is a 119,000 person company; because we have no franchises, we are all counted as employees of the parent company.
As to the OP, my answer to the question would be “a sizable, if not vast, majority, but I don’t know that there can be a percentage assigned to it.”
Achilles, did you really mean “any incorporated vehicle” (i.e. just C and S corporations), or “any legally recognized business” (including Sole Props, partnerships, LLCs, etc.)? I suspect that the stats zut posted are for the latter, given the number of 1-person firms.
Depending on the state rules about LLCs, my (Not a Lawyer) undestanding is that there’s not much point in incorporating single-person businesses, since corps have to treat everyone as an employee (with associated taxes and hassles), whereas Sole Props income just passes through onto the owner’s personal income taxes, and the liability shield can be provided by being an LLC (at least in Oregon, my state). But they’re still legitimate businesses.
Timewinder - I am refering to any incorporated vehicle. LLC. Partnership, NA - you name it. And for the purposes of the discussion I would like to treat 2 Spar franchises as different companies.
BTW, the reason for incorporating 1 person companies, is that the proprietor has vested (nearly) all liability in the corporation, and thus avoid criminal liability himself, for any action taken in good faith by the company. However the recent Sarbanes-Oxley act in the US, and Company Law Enforcement Act in Ireland, (and presumably other recent legislation) has chenged this somewhat - re. Directors Liability, Corporate Killing etc.
Yes, I don’t think I was very clear on what I meant.
What I was trying to convey was that I thought you were misusing the word “incorporated.” My understanding was that “incorporated” only applied to corporations (S & C), and that other entities weren’t referred to that way, using “company” or “business” instead – although I could certainly be wrong. I’ve never heard of an “Incorporated Sole Proprietorship”, for example; I think “Sole Proprietor” and “Incorporated” are exclusive.
The second concept I failed to communicate was this: The LLC (Limited Liability Company for those playing along at home) designation provides the much of the liability shield of a true corporation without the associated hassles of one, hence the need to incorporate for liability reasons was reduced in small companies – which in fact is why the LLC was created, no?
However, I’ll be the first to acknowledge that this discussion has wandered from the OP, that I’m at the edge of my knowledge (I own a small business, but I’m not a lawyer), and that the other readers of this thread have fallen asleep – so I’ll shut up now.
My corporation only had one employee, me. This is the case of many professionals like medical doctors, lawyers or, as in my case, consulting engineers. Often it will just be the professional and an assistant. I think this this is where most of the <5 group comes from.
Haj
Thanks all. Still - can anyone cite a website that may have stats. I’m still coming up blank on the web.