Live data from Hacker News

What industry has the highest revenue per employee?

craft.co

71–80 of 132 posts

Re: What industry has the highest revenue per employee?

#71
post #21
post #6

One item that I find potentially misleading is that, to my understanding, oil and gas companies outsource/subcontract a lot of the seasonal/irregular/less predictable work to third-parties. This means that these people aren't calculated in these numbers, but they generate a good chunk of the revenue. I could be wrong about that, but I used to work with Exxon and they talked about this - that the total employee base w…

I think people often don't realize the scale at which energy companies use contractors/etc. The "boots on the ground" folks are almost entirely contractors or hired through another company. Plenty of companies exist purely to provide employees to one oil company in one field. Exxon/Chevron/Total/BP/etc each have around 50-100k employees (I may be a bit off there, but it's in the ballpark). The workforce required for…

True, but many of those contractors will themselves be classified as energy companies according to the S&P (GICS) sector classification.

For instance, energy services companies such as Schlumberger or Halliburton belong to the energy sector as well.

But it's true that there will be a ton of low value work that gets outsourced to services companies that are mostly classified as industrials (construction, environmental services, transportation, etc).

Re: What industry has the highest revenue per employee?

#72
post #64
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither of the two major publicly traded HFT firms would have made the top 10 if they were in the S&P 500. http://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001592386/f7d31d31... https://www.flowtraders.com/system/files/downloads/Flow%20Tr... I can imagine some smaller firms making the list. Did you have any specific ones in mind?

The most successful ones won't be publicly traded.

Ok. Optiver was under $1 million per person so wouldn't make the top 10. IMC likely would not have been in the top 10 either.

Re: What industry has the highest revenue per employee?

#74

Not a fan of Revenue Per Employee as a measure of operating efficiency. It would be much more telling to evaluate net earnings per employee: Net Earnings Per Employee: Valero: $365,452 [1][2] Apple: $766,800 [3][4] [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/531676/valero-energy-cor... [2] https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/VLO/financials?p=VLO [3] https://www.apple.com/job-creation/ [4] https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL…

Better yet would be an earnings per hour worked since not all employees work full time, and some companies encourage a lot of overtime.

Re: What industry has the highest revenue per employee?

#75
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people often don't realize the scale at which energy companies use contractors/etc. The "boots on the ground" folks are almost entirely contractors or hired through another company. Plenty of companies exist purely to provide employees to one oil company in one field. Exxon/Chevron/Total/BP/etc each have around 50-100k employees (I may be a bit off there, but it's in the ballpark). The workforce required for…

Telecomms do this for laying new wires/fiber too. They subcontract most all of the lashing, digging, and boring and the pulling of actual fiber lines, leaving the ends loose, and only then use their own employees to go out and actually splice them into the previous lines or into an active network. The connections at the end are quick and easy with little liability risks, unlike climbing electric or telephone poles, t…

> then use their own employees to go out and actually splice them into the previous lines or into an active network.

Hahahaha - no. We use contractors for that too - no one who is outside our offices is an employee. GIS jockeys are contractors too. My developers also and most of the call centers. Essentially the only in-house functions are architecture, project management - everything else is contracted out.

Re: What industry has the highest revenue per employee?

#76
post #8

Multiple HFT companies would be top 10 on that list.

There's been a lot of consolidation in the HFT sector recently [1]. Back in 2008, when HFT was hot and new, a lot of money was made. But lower post crisis volatility and multiple HFT firms chasing the same opportunities has compressed margins. The party is over...

[1] https://www.thetradenews.com/hft-not-so-flashy-anymore/

Re: What industry has the highest revenue per employee?

#77
post #51

Altria Group is categorized as "consumer staples." If you've ever seen the Altria headquarters in Richmond... well, it's unusually intimidating for a consumer staples company -- https://www.google.com/maps/@37.6002824,-77.5147176,3a,75y,3... Altria is the tobacco industry.

"Consumer staples" includes tobacco; it also includes alcohol.

Re: What industry has the highest revenue per employee?

#78
post #21
post #6

One item that I find potentially misleading is that, to my understanding, oil and gas companies outsource/subcontract a lot of the seasonal/irregular/less predictable work to third-parties. This means that these people aren't calculated in these numbers, but they generate a good chunk of the revenue. I could be wrong about that, but I used to work with Exxon and they talked about this - that the total employee base w…

I think people often don't realize the scale at which energy companies use contractors/etc. The "boots on the ground" folks are almost entirely contractors or hired through another company. Plenty of companies exist purely to provide employees to one oil company in one field. Exxon/Chevron/Total/BP/etc each have around 50-100k employees (I may be a bit off there, but it's in the ballpark). The workforce required for…

Sounds a lot like mining, although you could go a step further and say that (depending on where in the mining boom/bust cycle we are) mining companies are actually finance companies. They find a location (by paying geological survey companies, or by just buying an established claim from someone else), they pay other companies to design and build a mine site, then they pay yet other companies to staff and operate the site. Sometimes the company has very little direct involvement in actually digging ore out of the ground and processing it.

Re: What industry has the highest revenue per employee?

#79

Not a fan of Revenue Per Employee as a measure of operating efficiency. It would be much more telling to evaluate net earnings per employee: Net Earnings Per Employee: Valero: $365,452 [1][2] Apple: $766,800 [3][4] [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/531676/valero-energy-cor... [2] https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/VLO/financials?p=VLO [3] https://www.apple.com/job-creation/ [4] https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL…

Better yet would be an earnings per hour worked since not all employees work full time, and some companies encourage a lot of overtime.

This, and more importantly, mattzito comment on external contractors and outsourcing. Energy companies do that a lot.
Post reply on HN