Employees are the backbone of some of the most successful technology companies in the world and it’s evident that without employees these tech giants wouldn’t be where they are today without the employees who keep the business running day to day – but just how much are the biggest tech companies making per employee?
Research by PostBeyond shows how the tech companies listed in the Fortune 500 compare for profit made per employee in this graphic and compares that to 2017 data to see whether they have made more or less profit than the previous year.
To calculate the profit per employee each tech company makes, PostBeyond looked at the companies profit over the past year and divided it by the total number of employees each company has.
Interested in finding out which companies made the highest profit per employee?
These are the top 10 companies with the highest profit per employee last year:
- Facebook – $634,694
- Apple – $393,097
- Microsoft – $171,000
- Alphabet – $158,057
- Cisco – $131,81
- Netflix – $109,588
- Booking holdings – $102,218
- Adobe – $94,252
- Oracle – $67,645
- HP – $51,551
Facebook comes out on top with a total – and rather staggering – profit per employee of in excess of $600,000 profit per employee. This was despite a tough year for Facebook, who faced a big lawsuit this year over user privacy and a data breach, they still have a total profit margin of $15,934 and a workforce count of just over 25,000 employees.
Although Apple made a total profit of $48,351 million in 2017, their profit per employee averages out at just $393,097 and is down -0.19% since last year leaving them in second place. Yet, they have over four time the number of employees than Facebook with 123,000 staff around the world employed by Apple.
Microsoft might be one of the world’s longest standing tech companies, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. However, longest standing doesn’t always mean biggest profit – Microsoft has a total profit of $21,204 million (less than half of Apple’s) and it’s profit per employee stands at $171,000. Despite ranking below Facebook and Apple, it’s percentage change from the previous year is 16.05%.
With the lowest number of employees on the list, Netflix employs just 5,100 employees and makes a total profit of $109,588 per employee – leaving at at number six on the list. On the other hand, Dell employs the highest number of employees on the list, with a total employee count of 145,000 – yet it made a loss last year losing $-3,728 million.
The companies who have had the biggest percentage growth change from their previous year are NetApp (170.81%), Netflix (125.99%) and Amphenol (109.88%) – all of which combined have a total profit per employee of $169,277 million, just under Microsoft’s profit per employee total.
In regard to the companies which have had a negative percentage change from their previous years, Xerox (-264.42%), eBay (-104.46%) and Motorola Solutions (-89.01%) have been hit the hardest. Data from PostBeyond also shows that Dell, eBay and Motorola Solutions are within the bottom Fortune 500 companies by having the lowest profit: Dell losing $-3,728 million, eBay losing $1,016 million and Motorola Solutions losing $-155 million.
What is the worth of each employee in the industry you work in? Does your company beat Facebook’s record profit per employee?