The 10 companies with the largest number of employees in Spain

The Spanish economy is one of the largest in Europe and is supported by a strong network of businesses that provide jobs for millions of Spaniards. In this ranking, we take a look at the 10 companies with the largest number of employees in Spain.

1. Mercadona

The Spanish company with the most employees in Spain is supermarket chain Mercadona. At the end of 2021, according to the annual report of the company headed by Juan Roig, the company employed 93,300 people in Spain, and this figure rises to 95,800 when operations in Portugal are included. Mercadona has a total of 1,635 supermarkets. Its turnover in Spain in 2021 amounted to 27,404 million euros.

2. ACS Group

The ACS Group (construction and service activities), led and managed by Florentino Pérez, is the second largest employer in Spain. At the end of 2021, according to the annual report, the ACS Group employed 75,967 people in Spain. ACS's operations extend to many countries around the world, with a total of 122,502 employees.

3. El Corte Inglés

The third most-employed Spanish company at the end of 2021 was El Corte Inglés, with 74,728 employees in Spain. The retail giant is also present in other countries such as Portugal and Mexico. The company, headed by Marta Alvarez, has 79,804 employees worldwide, according to figures published in its 2021 annual report.

4. ONCE

The social group ONCE ended 2021 with a total of 71,200 employees, having hired 1,221 new employees during the year. 58% of ONCE employees are people with disabilities. According to these figures, ONCE ranks fourth among Spanish companies in terms of number of employees and is the world's largest employer of people with disabilities, according to the company itself.

In 2018, ONCE celebrated its 80th anniversary. As of this year, ONCE, ONCE Foundation and Ilunion, the brand that brings together the group's social and business initiatives, are united under the ONCE Social Group seal.

5. Mondragón Corporation

The Mondragón Corporation, which has four business lines (finance, industry, distribution and knowledge), is made up of 95 cooperatives. In Spain, it employs 65,000 people, the largest employer in the Basque Country, and this figure rises to 80,000 when activities in other countries are taken into account, according to the 2021 annual report.

6. Correos

The Correos Group, which includes the parent company Correos and subsidiaries Correos Express, Nexea and Correos Telecom, has 50,250 employees in Spain, according to figures provided by the group in its annual report for 2021. It is present in the physical and digital communications sector, as well as in the parcel market.

7. Eulen Group

Eulen Group offers services to companies in any sector in areas such as cleaning, security, maintenance, support services and human resources management. At the end of 2021, according to the data available on the company's website, Eulen employs 48,155 people in Spain, to which should be added a further 26,770 employees in the international market, for a total of 74,925 employees.

8. Inditex

Inditex, the Spanish multinational textile company that owns brands such as Zara, Massimo Dutti, Pull&Bear, Bershka and Stradivarius, is present in more than 200 international markets. The total number of Inditex employees worldwide at the end of 2021 was 165,042, according to the group's annual report for that year. In Spain, Inditex employs 46,075 people.

9. FCC

The FCC (Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas) group had 45,695 employees in Spain at the end of 2021. According to the company's filing with the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), the largest number of employees is in the environmental field, with 33,909. The group also has 13,852 employees abroad, bringing the total number of employees to 59,547. The FCC, chaired by Esther Alcocer Koplowitz, operates in more than 25 countries.

10. CaixaBank

At the end of 2021, when the financial group CaixaBank completed its merger with Bankia, it had 44,912 employees in Spain. If we add to this the activities in Portugal, where it owns BPI Bank, and in other countries, the number of employees increases to 49,762, according to data presented in the consolidated management report for fiscal year 2021.