Most recent estimates suggest private equity firms directly employ 12 million people in the United States alone, and millions more around the world. The largest number of workers employed by private equity-owned companies are concentrated in low-wage industries such as food service, retail, healthcare, and security. While focusing on growing cash flows at the companies they buy, private equity firms often take a low road approach and seek to reduce wages, benefits, and staffing at companies they acquire – with devastating consequences to millions of workers, their families and entire communities.
Private equity firms typically have a controlling stake in the portfolio companies they own, meaning they have the power to impact jobs and working conditions. As the ultimate owners of these companies, private equity firms should implement minimum labor standards such as those in the Private Equity Labor Rights Platform across their portfolios.
Last year, PESP released a database containing information on 200+ private equity-owned companies with 10,000 or more employees. The table can be filtered and sorted by any of the columns such as Current Owner or Industry – this year’s update also includes Locations Active. Texas has the highest number of large private equity-backed companies, followed by Florida and California. Excluding the United States, where 186 of the 206 companies in the database have locations, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany have the greatest number of companies represented.
The data from this year shows an overall increase in the number of employees at the largest private equity-owned companies in the world. Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services saw the largest increase in employees, with recent acquisitions like NexTech and Guidehouse driving the change. Japan Industrial Partners’ September 2023 acquisition of Toshiba accounted for the significant growth in the Manufacturing sector.
While Retail/Wholesale Trade remains the second-largest sector, it had the greatest loss in employee numbers. Some of this drop-off can be attributed to bankruptcies. The 99 Cents Only Stores bankruptcy led to layoffs for 14,000 employees. Joann also went bankrupt in the last year while majority-owned by Leonard Green & Partners – though creditors have been able to keep the craft stores open, the 18,000 employees are no longer under private equity ownership.
| Sector | 2023 | 2024 | Difference |
| Accommodation & Food Services | 2,418,414 | 2,463,692 | 45,278 |
| Retail / Wholesale Trade | 1,609,997 | 1,509,313 | -100,684 |
| Administrative, Support, & Security | 1,236,000 | 1,287,000 | 51,000 |
| Health Care & Social Assistance | 1,020,076 | 995,800 | -24,276 |
| Professional, Scientific, & Technical Services | 826,500 | 1,061,844 | 235,344 |
| Manufacturing | 642,740 | 839,306 | 196,566 |
| Waste Management & Remediation Services | 240,500 | 205,000 | -35,500 |
| Arts, Entertainment, & Media | 224,520 | 176,243 | -48,277 |
| Finance & Insurance | 183,964 | 188,964 | 5,000 |
| Transportation & Warehousing | 163,000 | 200,000 | 37,000 |
| Other Services | 119,000 | 134,000 | 15,000 |
| Educational Services | 94,992 | 85,173 | -9,819 |
| Construction and Mining | 83,000 | 82,000 | -1,000 |
| Real Estate | 52,000 | 52,000 | 0 |
| Total | 8,914,703 | 9,280,335 | 365,632 |
| Country | # Companies |
| United States | 186 |
| Canada | 60 |
| United Kingdom | 49 |
| Germany | 41 |
| Mexico | 41 |
| France | 37 |
| Spain | 36 |
| India | 35 |
| Italy | 33 |
| Japan | 30 |
| China | 28 |
| Netherlands | 28 |
Scroll through the visualizations below to see sector and firm-level data on the largest private equity employers. Some NAICS categories have been combined to simplify the visualizations (ex: Retail Trade and Wholesale Trade).
Email workers@pestakeholder.orgwith questions, corrections, or other comments.
To access the full database, click here.
