Indian Railways, Army among world's biggest employers: Study

Railways and the Indians Army are among the world's biggest employers, together employing a whopping 2.7 million people, said a report.

Though it is often said that Indian Railways is the largest employer in the world, but it seems it is not. The organisation is ranked at the eighth place in the list of world's biggest employers.

Immediately after Indian Railways in the 8th rank with 1.4 million staff is the Indian Armed Forces with 1.3 million people.

According to a research published by the World Economic Forum, the US Department of Defense is the world's biggest employer which claims over 3.2 million employees on its roster.

Second is People's Liberation Army (the Chinese military) with 2.3 million, and in third is the US supermarket giant Walmart with 2.1 million workers, the report said, adding that "...175,000 of Walmart's staff work for UK supermarket chain, Asda".

McDonald's is the 4th biggest employer with 1.9 million employees, however, as the majority of its restaurants are franchises, this figure falls to 420,000 when they are excluded, the report said.

UK's National Health Service was ranked at the 5th place, with 1.7 million employees, followed by state-run China National Petroleum Corporation with 1.6 million.

Another Chinese company, the State Grid Corporation of China was ranked 7th with 1.5 million.

Hon Hai Precision Factory (better known as the electronics manufacturer Foxconn) comes in at 10th place with 1.2 million people.

Photographs: Reuters

Photograph of US Department of Defence, courtesy DoD