As of 2025, the India Ministry of Defence is the world's largest employer, with a workforce of approximately 2.99 million personnel. This massive public sector entity tops global lists, closely followed by the U.S. Department of Defense (~2.93 million) and China's People's Liberation Army (~2.55 million).
You heard the news: on July 9, 2025, propelled by the AI frenzy, the chipmaker Nvidia surpassed the $4 trillion market cap and became the most valuable company in the world by market capitalization.
Is the NHS the second largest employer in the world?
The NHS is one of the biggest employers in the world, with some estimates putting it as high as the sixth biggest only behind the Indian Ministry of Defence, US Department of Defense, the People's Liberation Army of China, Walmart and Amazon.
Unite the Union branded Compass Group subsidiary ESS as "Britain's most heartless employer" in a dispute where outsourced cleaners and catering staff at the Ministry of Defence faced redundancy in a "fire and rehire" manoeuvre.
Employment. No company in the world has more employees than Walmart. The latest information from the U.S. retail giant put the figure at a massive 2.30 million. Not even the behemoth that is Amazon comes close, despite being in second place with a 1.61 million-strong workforce.
We often here the phrase, "the third biggest employer behind the People's Liberation Army and the Indian Railways" with regard to the NHS. And even if you go to the jobs section of the NHS website they seem proud of the fact that they employ over 1.3 million people, 'the biggest in Europe'.
Of the day-to-day spending, most (ยฃ187 billion in 2024/25) was allocated to NHS England for spending on health services. The remainder was allocated to central budgets of the Department of Health and Social Care and its other arms-length bodies such as the UK Health Security Agency.
