Which company has employed the most people?

[ivylass]

Walt Disney World? Don’t forget to throw in ABC and ESPN while you’re at it.

[Chronos]

Walmart claims an employee turnover of 50%

50% per what? Year? Because the total turnover rate of any company will rapidly approach 100%, in the long term.

[Malthus]

@Lunar Saltlick

Well, over the course of its life, the Hudson’s Bay Company in Canada must have employed quite a few people. It’s been in existence since, I think, 1606. It’s always been a fairly large employer, with stores all over the country, and if you add in all of its various acquisitions over the years, and its offshoots, it probably adds up. As retailers go, its nowhere near Wal-Mart’s size, but WM’s been around since when – 1980?

If the question was “which private company owned the most territory”, HBC would probably win … or would the British East India Company?

[RickJay]

@Sage Rat

I seem to recall that at one time General Motors accounted for something like 25% of the United States GDP. I can’t find a cite to back that up, and am relatively certain that percentage is off by ±10%.

It’s off by an order of magnitude; GM was, I believe, about 2 to 2.5 percent of GDP.

If we’re going by people who are directly employed by a single private business, my guess is Wal Mart. Although it hasn’t been around as long as GM, General Electric, or other companies like that, it

1. Employs a truly massive number of people - it is the largest private employer in the history of the world, with just under 2 million employees. GM, by comparison, directly employs about 300,000 people now, and was never close to 2 million.
2. Has (as already illustrated) very high turnover, as it’s an entry level job for most of its employees. This is not generally true of unionized companies like GM or professional companies like GE, and
3. Does not franchise, so every person in the world who works at a Wal Mart store is an employee of Wal Mart.

If we go by any sort of organization, my guess would be the Soviet Armed Forces, which existed continuously for just over 80 years, and for the entire time ranged in size from “humongous” to “unbelievably gigantic.” The Army of the People’s Republic of China is bigger now, but hasn’t been around as long, so they likely still have a bit of catching up to do.