Walmart employs over two million people, but they are easily beaten by the single largest employer on the planet.

The world’s biggest workforce is a government one

The employer that surpasses Walmart is the U.S. Department of Defense, when its military and civilian personnel are counted together. Its workforce includes people in the armed services as well as civilians who keep the department’s operations running—from administration and logistics to technical and support roles.

That makes the comparison broader than a contest between two ordinary corporate payrolls. Walmart’s total is largely made up of retail and distribution workers; the Defense Department’s includes uniformed service members, including people serving in reserve components, alongside civilian employees.

Why the counting matters

“Largest employer” depends on whom a count includes. A tally of full-time civilian employees alone would tell a different story from one that also counts military personnel. The Defense Department’s scale comes partly from its worldwide mission: it must staff forces and support systems across many locations, rather than operate a single network of stores and warehouses.

The comparison is striking because it reveals how large a national institution can be when its workforce includes both a government’s civilian staff and its military. Walmart is enormous by corporate standards; the Defense Department’s broader headcount reflects an organization built to provide personnel for national defense on a much larger scale.