With unemployment in the US purportedly reaching its lowest level in 17 years (that is, according to the Department of Labor's flawed household survey) employees who once would've been too fearful to leave their jobs are now actively looking for opportunities. With that in mind, many have probably wondered what's the best company to work for where they live?
Well, HowMuch.com gathered data compiled by Forbes into an infographic to try and map out the best and largest employers in every country.
Forbes recently released a ranking of the best companies in the world using a variety of different perks and benefits, like the quality of food served to employees, parental leave policies or whether companies allow their employees to nap while on the job.
HowMuch mapped these companies by paying attention to their market capitalization to get a feel for how large an organization needs to be to afford such high-quality benefits. One company therefore represents each country, color-coded by market cap. Red countries have an employer worth over $100 billion, and dark blue countries boast relatively small employers under $10 billion.
Several trends immediately pop out from our map:
- Red countries with huge companies predominantly originate in North America and Western Europe.
- Alphabet is the largest on our list by a landslide with a market cap of $579.5 billion, bigger than the entire GDP of Argentina.
- The three exceptions proving the rule are a tobacco company in India called ITC with a market cap of $51.6 billion, plus Hong Kong (CNOOC, $54.8 billion) and Taiwan (Han Hai Precision, $54.4 billion). All three of these places experienced long-term and unique economic and political relationships with the West.
- Africa only contributes a single company to Forbes’ list, namely Remgro from South Africa, a conglomerate made of many subsidiaries from different industries.
- The Middle East and Eastern Europe also have only a few companies that made the cut.
Here’s a simplified list of the countries with the best employers in the world, ranked in order of their total market cap:
- 1. United States - Alphabet: Computer Services - $579.5B and 72,053 employees
- 2. Switzerland - Nestle: Food Processing - $229.5B and 328,000 employees
- 3. Netherlands - Unilever: Household/Personal Care - $143.9B and 169,000 employees
- 4. Germany - Daimler: Auto & Truck Manufacturers - $76.1B and 282,488 employees
- 5. Hong Kong - CNOOC: Oil & Gas Operations - $54.8B and 19,718 employees
- 6. Taiwan - Hon Hai Precision: Electronics - $54.4B and 1,000,000 employees
- 7. Canada - Suncor Energy: Oil & Gas Operations – $51.7B and 12,837 employees
- 8. India - ITC: Tobacco - $51.6B and 25,564 employees
- 9. Italy - Enel: Electric Utilities - $47.5B and 62,080 employees
- 10. Australia - CSL: Biotechs - $43.9B and 16,000 employees
Coming in at No. 1 is, of course, Alphabet. It tops the list because of its size and market dominance.