Charts
56 Military, Commercial, and Personal Aircraft Ranked by Top Speed
What can go nearly six times the speed of sound and cost $2.5 trillion dollars to build and operate (adjusted for inflation)? The answer is the North American X-15, hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft that achieved the fastest aircraft flying speed of all time on October 3rd, 1967 when it reached 4,520 miles per hour! That is an awe-inspiring 75 miles per minute and 1.25 miles per second. GlobalAir.com has launched a compelling (or propelling?) chart visualizing aircraft ranked by max flying speed. More than half of the aircraft shown are capable of flying faster than the sound of speed!
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How fast is the sound of speed anyway? Mach 1, or the speed of sound, varies depending on the temperature of the air (or other medium) that it is passing through. So at sea level on planet Earth at around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, the speed of sound is approximately 767 miles per hour. That means that the North American X-15, an aircraft operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, flew at a rate nearly six times as fast as the speed of sound. The record was achieved by William J. Knight, a Vietnam combat pilot and test pilot for the U.S. Air Force. During his 16 flights in the aircraft, Knight became one of the few non-NASA pilots to earn their Astronaut Wings by flying an airplane in space – this was achieved by reaching an altitude of 280,500 feet (53.125 miles). It truly is extraordinary how far aviation technology has come in a century!
Business Visualizations
The Biggest Employers by Industry
There are more than 30 million businesses in the U.S. — but some of those companies employ far more workers than others. Giants like Walmart and Amazon have more than a million employees working on developing, marketing, transporting and selling their products everyday. Meanwhile, lesser-known companies in industries you may not be as familiar with also employ a significant amount of our workforce.
Using Fortune 500 data, our team at The Chartistry identified the largest employers in every industry, including retail, food, health care, real estate and many more (we included a whopping 75 industries total).
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Who is the largest employer in America?
Technically, the largest employer in the U.S. is the federal government. But if we’re talking about the company that employs the most people, Walmart takes the cake.
Since Walmart’s first store opened in 1962, the company has grown to establish more than 11,500 stores globally to serve more than 260 million weekly shoppers in 28 countries, according to the company’s site. It’s no surprise that the retailer requires a lot of manpower. Walmart has 2,100,000 employees, and is the only one on our list that employs more than 2 million people.
Who else are America’s biggest employers?
Walmart may offer up the most jobs in the U.S.,but there are plenty of other companies with thousands of employees headed to work everyday. Some of the giants on the list of companies with the most employees in every industry are also among the largest U.S. employers in general.
Amazon, which started in Jeff Bezos’ garage in 1994 as an online bookseller, has grown up to make its mark around the world. There’s a good chance you’ve shopped online via the company, watched its streamer or walked past an Amazon retail store or fulfillment center. Amazon may have started with a solo founder, but it now employs 1,525,000 people.
Home Depot is another retail heavyweight. Founded in 1978 as a hardware store, the company now boasts more than 2,300 stores across North America. But offering up all that home improvement requires a lot of hands on deck: The company has 463,100 employees. That makes it the highest employer in one category of specialty retailers, but TJX, with 349,000 employees, is the largest employer in the apparel-specific specialty retailer category.
In the mail, package and freight delivery industry, you can probably guess who employs the most people. It’s FedEx, which was just an idea in 1965 when its eventual founder Frederick W. Smith wrote a paper at Yale University on the potential of a new way to get time-sensitive shipments to recipients (he received an average grade, according to the company’s website). Since then, the company makes around 14.5 million deliveries each day thanks to its 446,400 employees.
UnitedHealth Group also made our list, which makes sense, seeing as its the largest health insurance company in the U.S. Parent company of United Healthcare, the company was founded in 1977. Nowadays, it employs 440,000 people.
Curious which food and drug store is the largest employer? That would be Kroger, which had its start in 1883 when Barney Kroger invested his life savings of $372 to open a single grocery store. More than 140 years later, Kroger is the nation’s largest grocer with nearly 2,800 stores in 35 states and 414,000 employees. But if we’re talking specifically about food services, latte lovers’ favorite place, Starbucks, is the largest employer, with 381,000 employees. Looking specifically at the food consumer products industry, PepsiCo — which owns brands like Lay’s, Doritos, Gatorade, Quaker and, of course, Pepsi — is the largest employer with 318,000 employees.
The travel industry also requires tons of workers. American Airlines Group, which offers thousands of flights daily in more than 60 countries, is the largest employer in the airline industry with 132,100 people. Hilton Worldwide Holdings, meanwhile, has 178,000 employees to help run its hotels, casinos and resorts.
In the entertainment industry, a very familiar name earns the title for largest employer with its 199,125 workers: Walt Disney.
The largest U.S. employers in each industry
Here are the largest companies by employees in every industry — from hotels and airlines to pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.
Industry |
Company |
Number of Employees |
General Merchandisers |
Walmart |
2,100,000 |
Internet Services and Retailing |
Amazon |
1,525,000 |
Specialty Retailers: Other |
Home Depot |
463,100 |
Mail, Package, and Freight Delivery |
FedEx |
446,400 |
Health Care: Insurance and Managed Care |
UnitedHealth Group |
440,000 |
Information Technology Services |
Concentrix |
440,000 |
Food and Drug Stores |
Kroger |
414,000 |
Insurance: Property and Casualty (Stock) |
Berkshire Hathaway |
396,500 |
Food Services |
Starbucks |
381,000 |
Specialty Retailers: Apparel |
TJX |
349,000 |
Food Consumer Products |
PepsiCo |
318,000 |
Commercial Banks |
JPMorganChase |
309,926 |
Health Care: Medical Facilities |
HCA Healthcare |
265,000 |
Diversified Outsourcing Services |
Aramark |
262,550 |
Health Care: Pharmacy and Other Services |
CVS Health |
259,500 |
Semiconductors and Other Electronic Components Equipment |
Jabil |
236,000 |
Computer Software |
Microsoft |
221,000 |
Entertainment |
Walt Disney |
199,125 |
Motor Vehicles & Parts |
Lear |
186,600 |
Telecommunications |
Comcast |
186,000 |
Aerospace & Defense |
RTX |
185,000 |
Hotels, Casinos, Resorts |
Hilton Worldwide Holdings |
178,000 |
Computers, Office Equipment |
Apple |
161,000 |
Food Production |
Tyson Foods |
139,000 |
Airlines |
American Airlines Group |
132,100 |
Pharmaceuticals |
Johnson & Johnson |
131,900 |
Real Estate |
CBRE Group |
130,000 |
Industrial Machinery |
General Electric |
125,000 |
Scientific, Photographic, and Control Equipment |
Thermo Fisher Scientific |
122,000 |
Medical Products and Equipment |
Abbott Laboratories |
114,000 |
Construction and Farm Machinery |
Caterpillar |
113,200 |
Transportation and Logistics |
GXO Logistics |
109,000 |
Household and Personal Products |
Procter & Gamble |
107,000 |
Network and Other Communications Equipment |
Amphenol |
95,000 |
Chemicals |
3M |
85,000 |
Diversified Financials |
Marsh & McLennan |
85,000 |
Apparel |
Nike |
83,700 |
Tobacco |
Philip Morris International |
82,700 |
Beverages |
Coca-Cola |
79,100 |
Advertising, Marketing |
Omnicom Group |
75,900 |
Wholesalers: Food and Grocery |
Sysco |
71,750 |
Insurance: Property and Casualty (Mutual) |
State Farm Insurance |
65,054 |
Petroleum Refining |
Exxon Mobil |
61,500 |
Financial Data Services |
Fidelity National Information Services |
60,000 |
Wholesalers: Diversified |
Genuine Parts |
60,000 |
Electronics, Electrical Equipment |
Whirlpool |
59,000 |
Oil And Gas Equipment, Services |
Baker Hughes |
58,000 |
Packaging And Containers |
WestRock |
56,100 |
Securities |
Edward Jones |
54,000 |
Engineering and Construction |
Quanta Services |
52,500 |
Home Equipment, Furnishings |
Stanley Black & Decker |
50,500 |
Waste Management |
Waste Management |
48,000 |
Wholesalers: Health Care |
McKesson |
48,000 |
Insurance: Life, Health (Stock) |
MetLife |
45,000 |
Trucking, Truck Leasing |
J.B. Hunt Transport Services |
34,718 |
Toys, Sporting Goods |
Mattel |
33,000 |
Railroads |
Union Pacific |
32,973 |
Metals |
Nucor |
32,000 |
Automotive Retailing, Services |
CarMax |
30,621 |
Building Materials, Glass |
Builders FirstSource |
29,000 |
Utilities: Gas and Electric |
PG&E |
28,010 |
Wholesalers: Electronics and Office Equipment |
TD Synnex |
28,000 |
Temporary Help |
Manpower Group |
27,900 |
Mining, Crude-Oil Production |
Freeport-McMoRan |
27,200 |
Equipment Leasing |
United Rentals |
26,300 |
Publishing, Printing |
News Corp. |
25,000 |
Miscellaneous |
Service Corporation International |
21,267 |
Transportation Equipment |
Polaris |
18,500 |
Energy |
NRG Energy |
18,131 |
Education |
Graham Holdings |
17,006 |
Insurance: Life, Health (Mutual) |
TIAA |
16,023 |
Pipelines |
Energy Transfer |
13,786 |
Homebuilders |
D.R. Horton |
13,450 |
Forest and Paper Products |
Domtar |
13,000 |
Shipping |
Kirby Corporation |
5,450 |
Don’t miss our other visuals (Chartistry Originals) that give insight into some of the biggest employers in the U.S, including our map of the biggest Fortune 500 companies in every state, breakdown of America’s most valuable companies ranked by profit per employee and original chart of everything owned by Apple.
Source:
Business Visualizations
Study Shows Us the Most Common Occupations by Age Group
Studying jobs by age groups provides insight into worker priorities and the impact of factors such as education, experience, and physical strength. The team at Qualtrics gathered data to create a graphic of the most common jobs held in different age categories using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to form their visualizations.
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Here are the most common jobs by age:
- 16–24: cashier
- 25–34: registered nurse
- 35–54: elementary or middle school teacher
- 55–64: sales worker or truck driver
- Over 65: farmer, rancher, or agricultural manager
- Any age group overall: customer service representative
The chart shows that the most common job is a customer service rep, which is understandable given the number of industries hiring for this position. It’s a job with diverse tasks encompassing customer experience and quality of interactions with the business. Customer service jobs typically don’t require more than a high school diploma, yet they pay an average annual salary of over $60,000.
We can see from the charts that cashier and server jobs are most common among the youngest demographics. This is likely due to the low pay and hours spent on your feet. It’s an entry job for many people who grow to move on to different positions or career paths as they age and change priorities. While that’s not always the case, many servers and cashiers move on from the role in search of higher pay and less physically demanding work.
These same individuals may go on to pursue careers as teachers and nurses, if our data is any indication. These jobs require specialized education but offer higher pay, and there is a demand for these positions. It’s no surprise that many people are building lifelong careers in nursing and teaching. As for people who keep working past retirement age, farmers and ranchers took the top spot. This work is often physically demanding, but the businesses are usually generational, meaning older people get help from their descendants and stay involved with a business close to their heart.
Employers can make use of data like this, as they generally want to avoid job-hopping employees. Looking at these statistics, we can infer many reasons why someone may leave a job. Employers can address this by offering higher wages, more flexible work styles and arrangements, and an improved employee experience. Most workers seek a stable job with fair compensation for the amount of work and education required. We also note that many blue-collar jobs are represented on this list, including construction workers, janitors, and truck drivers, with fewer white-collar jobs listed. Many people work essential jobs that help us stay healthy, fed, and stocked with goods.
Business Visualizations
Chart Visualizes the Price of the Ford Mustang Every Year Since Debut
The Ford Mustang is a legendary American muscle car that symbolizes the culture of open-road freedom. The Ford Motor Company designed the vehicle to embody the European sports car, but with a price point that’s more attainable for middle-class Americans. The idea was a massive success. The first Mustang debuted in 1964, and the Mustang enjoys a legacy and loyal fans to this day. The team at Speedway Motors celebrates the Mustang with an illustrated graphic depicting each Mustang iteration, along with the price at release and the price adjusted for inflation.
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Through this detailed and illustrated chart, we can see the evolution of this vehicle. The first Mustang Hardtop was priced at $2,368, which is $24,3444 in today’s market, emphasizing its affordability in the world of muscle cars. While the Mustang was a gamble, it proved to be a phenomenon and sold over 100,000 cars in its first four months. The Mustangs’ popularity persisted throughout the ‘60s, and Ford focused on improved performance and power, which meant prices rose. This trend continued until the early ‘70s gas crisis when Ford had to adjust to new consumer demands for better fuel mileage. They designed the Mustang II with a smaller chassis and less muscle to adjust to the changes in the economy.
The Mustang’s popularity hit a dip in the early ‘80s, and the Camaro almost outsold it. Ford innovated and adjusted again with the release of the Fox Mustang, designed to be versatile as a day-to-day muscle car. As technology advanced into the ‘90s, Ford introduced popular new features like a V8 engine and SN-95 chassis, which we can see featured in the Mustang GT.
Today’s Mustang is loaded with the most innovative features, designed for performance and comfort. The current model is the Dark Horse Premium, which sells for $69,375. While it’s a flashy and popular car, it lacks some of the performance boosts of past models, yet the price is high.
The Mustangs’ prices have risen a lot over the decades, for several key reasons besides inflation. First, safety standards have increased with innovative technology making drivers safer. Some safety features are required, while others are sought-after bonuses that drivers are looking for. A key aspect of a muscle car is the power and performance. Modern technology advances the performance of the vehicle, but that engineering comes at a higher price point. Material costs have advanced as well, from labor to raw materials. Cars, in general, are now more expensive to build.
The team’s chart is a true testament to the power of visual data. Through the images and price points, we can see changes in the Mustang reflecting cultural and economic shifts, creating a fascinating timeline of an icon among automobiles. Do you have a favorite Mustang model? What do you think about the price changes over time?
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