World's 10 biggest employers

Time is rough for global economy at the moment.

Austerity and job cuts are rampant and people are striving to overcome the crisis.

Amid such a grim situation, there are companies that are adding jobs rather than cutting them.

CNBC recently came up with a list of world's biggest employers.

It is to be noted that Indian Railways, US Department of Defense and Chinese People's Liberation Army are excluded from the list.

Click NEXT to read about world's 10 biggest employers. . .

1. Wal-Mart
Number of employees: 2.1 million

Walmart is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores.

It has 8,500 stores in 15 countries, under 55 different names. The company operates under its own name in the United States.

It operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the United Kingdom as Asda and in Japan as Seiyu.

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2. McDonald's
Employees: 1.7 million

McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries.

Headquartered in the United States, the corporation was founded by businessman Ray Kroc in 1955 after he purchased the rights to a small hamburger chain operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald.

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3. Hon Hai Precision Industry | Foxconn
Employees: 836,000

The Foxconn Technology Group is a multinational business group anchored by the Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, a Taiwan-registered corporation headquartered in Tucheng, Taiwan.

Foxconn is the world's largest maker of electronic components including printed circuit boards.

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4. PetroChina
Employees: 592,700

PetroChina is a Chinese oil company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing.

It is China's biggest oil producer, and was the world's most valuable company by market value as of September 28, 2010.

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5. Tesco
Employees: 492,700

The UK grocery giant, founded by Jack Cohen, opened its first supermarket in 1929.

It retails everything from books, clothing, and electronics, to financial services. 

The employer has seen its workforce grow 19 per cent over the past five years, adding close to 80,000 jobs between 2007 and 2011.

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6. Carrefour
Employees: 471,750

It is one of the largest hypermarket chains in the world.

It is the second-largest retail group in the world in terms of revenue and third-largest in profit after Wal-Mart and Tesco.

Carrefour operates mainly in Europe, Argentina, Brazil, China, Taiwan, Colombia, Dominican Republic, and in the Middle East, but also has shops in North Africa and other parts of Asia.

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7. Deutsche Post DHL
Employees: 467,000

Deutsche Post DHL is the world's largest logistics group.

With its headquarters in Bonn, Germany, the corporation has employees in more than 220 countries and territories worldwide and generated revenue of Euro51.48 billion in 2010.

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8. Agricultural Bank of China
Employees: 444,440

The bank was founded in 1979.

It has branches throughout mainland China, Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, New York, Frankfurt, Sydney, Seoul and Singapore.

Agricultural Bank of China, also known as AgBank, is the world's biggest bank by the number of customers, branches, and employees.

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9. Compass Group
Employees: 428,000

The company was founded in the UK in 1941

Compass Group is a global contract foodservice and support services company headquartered near London, United Kingdom.

It is the largest contract foodservice company in the world and has operations in over 50 countries.

It serves around four billion meals a year in locations including offices and factories, schools, universities, hospitals, major sports and cultural venues, mining camps and offshore oil platforms.

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10. IBM
Employees: 426,750

IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States.

IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology.

As of September 2011, IBM is the second-largest publicly traded technology company in the world by market capitalistion.