Companies with high profits and revenue per employee are presumed to be the most successful. Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta Platforms, owner of Facebook, are such companies. These tech firms are among the largest in the United States, based on revenue, and are among the youngest large companies. Several were founded in the past 25 years. However, a group of relatively small companies leads the list of highest profit per employee.
Data for the recent “Profit per Employee” research paper from software company Tipalti came from the Fortune 500. Among the findings was that “There were 914 major companies in the study, and out of these the majority made profit per employee in the last year, 676 had a positive ratio compared to just 238 which made a loss per employee.”
The most profitable company by this measure was Air Lease. Its figure was $516 million per employee, based on profits of $4.3 billion and an employee count of 120.
Air Lease buys passenger planes and leases them to airlines. The process allows carriers that do not have capital access to planes. Air Lease makes its profit largely off the interest it charges these carriers. Hurt by the trouble with the aviation industry caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, its financials have started to recover.
When the company announced its 2021 results, John L. Plueger, chief executive officer and president, commented: “We had a strong fourth quarter and second half of 2021 that benefited from continuing airline industry recovery, as seen in our cash collections, operating metrics, fleet expansion, and record lease placement.”
Air Lease owns 474 planes that it leases to 118 customers in 60 countries. The company is based in Los Angeles.
Very few of the companies with the highest profit per employee are large tech companies. Meta is higher among these, at just over $478,000, which ranks its 11th based on 58,000 workers. Several financial firms come ahead of it. Mortgage giant Fannie Mae has profits of $1.5 million per employee, which number 7,700. This places it second on the list. The third is private equity firm KKR, at $1.3 million per employee on a base of 1,583 workers.
Click here to see the largest employer in each state.
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