Selena Maranjian at Motley Fool had an interesting article a couple weeks back that I've been meaning to point out. It's a comparison of profit per employee at large companies.

Topping the list was CONOCOPHILLIPS at over $500,000 profit per employee. That seems like a ton, but according to her article, the whole oil industry averages over $300,000 per employee. Microsoft is only $194,000+ by comparison.

Obviously some industries are more profitable than others, in that you can make big money with far fewer employees. For examples, Maranjian checked out retailers and found Costco at $17,000+, with Wal-Mart and BJ's at only $6,000+.

These numbers are probably skewed a bit, because retailers have more part-time employees than oil companies, and a commenter also suggested that the big white-collar companies use more contractors that contribute to the profit without being employees on the books.

Nevertheless, an interesting read.