Employee count

Employee count is the number of people a company employs, usually as of the end of its fiscal year. Companies disclose it in their annual report, and financial data sites list it among the supplemental items below the balance sheet.

Data sites often show two figures. Full time employees counts only staff working full schedules, while total employees also includes part time staff. For many companies the two are the same because only one number is reported.

On its own the figure says little, but it is the base for measures like revenue per employee and net income per employee, which show how much a business produces for each person it pays. Growth in headcount is also a clue about plans: a company hiring faster than its revenue grows is betting on future demand, while one cutting staff may be restructuring or protecting margins.