US Companies Generate the Most Profit per Employee

The 100 most profitable companies on the Fortune Global 500 list generated between £34.8 billion ($45.7 billion) and £3.6 billion ($4.8 billion) in the last financial year (2016-2017). These are numbers that are too large to even comprehend. But when we divided profits by number of employees to determine who effectively has the most ‘profitable’ employees, the numbers were truly impressive:

Ranking	Company Name	Country	Profit per Employee ($)	Profit per Employee (£)
1	Fannie Mae	US	1,759,000	1,342,759
2	Gilead Sciences	US	1,500,111	1,145,132
3	Freddie Mac	US	1,306,419	997,275
4	Facebook	US	599,307	457,491
5	Amgen	US	402,187	307,016
6	Apple	US	393,853	300,654
7	Alphabet	US	270,329	206,360
8	Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing	Taiwan	218,951	167,140
9	Goldman Sachs Group	US	215,058	164,168
10	AbbVie	US	198,433	151,477
11	SoftBank Group	Japan	192,442	146,903
12	Qualcomm	US	187,049	142,787
13	Tencent Holdings	China	159,533	121,782
14	Westpac Banking	Australia	155,244	118,508
15	Shanghai Pudong Development Bank	China	151,287	115,487
16	Commonwealth Bank of Australia	Australia	148,749	113,550
17	Microsoft	US	147,351	112,483
18	Cisco Systems	US	145,712	111,232
19	Industrial Bank	China	144,141	110,032

What the Tech is Going On?

Many would expect the employees of tech companies such as Facebook, Apple and Google to be among the most profitable, but their employees ranked only 4th, 6th and 7th respectively. Surprisingly, those holding the top three spots were companies from traditional industries; mortgage providers and pharmaceuticals.

A Productivity Party in the USA

Of the top 10 companies in terms of profit per employee, eight are American. This is no surprise considering that the USA has the 6th most productive workforce in the world, and the biggest economy at £14.5 trillion ($19.4 trillion)

Employees of the American Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), more commonly known as Fannie Mae, were the most profitable of all, effectively generating a staggering £1,342,759 ($1,759,000) each in profit last year.

Profitable Employees: There’s a Science to it

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most valuable in the US, with Americans having spent a staggering $450 billion on medicines last year alone. One of the most successful pharmaceutical companies is Gilead Sciences, who reported a profit of £10.3 billion ($13.5 billion) last year. This works out at an impressive £1.1 million ($1.5 million) in profit per employee.

Gilead are famous for their pioneering treatments of both HIV and Hepatitis C, although the high cost of drugs for the latter has caused a lot of controversy in recent months. Levels of Hep C in the US are currently at a 15 year high, and the high cost of the drug (£56,000, or $74,760, per course) has led insurance companies to impose strict criteria on who can qualify to receive it through their insurance.

What Next?

Fannie Mae employees may hold the top spot by some margin this year, but with a whole new generation of disruptive fintech startups threatening the traditional mortgage industry, we have to wonder if the leaderboard won’t look quite different in years to come.