Walmart tops Fortune 500 list

Fortune magazine released a new list of the top 500 American companies on the 15th. The world's largest retailer Walmart replaced oil giant ExxonMobil to top the list, and Chevron remained in third place as last year.

Wal-Mart, which has benefited from middle-class consumers seeking low-priced goods, ranked first due to its highest sales in 2009, while lower oil prices last year hit energy companies, with Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips both falling in the rankings from last year.

It is worth noting that Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase have recovered from the financial crisis and entered the top 10, bringing hope for the revitalization of the US banking industry. General Motors fell from 6th to 15th, the first time it has fallen out of the top 10 since Fortune magazine began publishing the Fortune 500 list in 1955. Due to a sharp decline in sales, none of the three home builders on the list last year made the list this year.

Behind the wealth

High profits come from lower staff costs

According to a new profit ranking released by Fortune magazine on Thursday, the overall profits of the top 500 American companies increased by 300% last year to $391 billion, but the means to achieve profits was to lay off employees.

Last year's economic crisis hit most companies hard, causing the total sales of the top 500 companies to drop by 8.7% in 2009, the largest drop since 1983. In order to make money, these companies desperately reduced costs by cutting jobs and other measures. It is reported that the top 500 companies cut a total of 821,000 jobs last year, reaching a historical high, and employee wages did not increase significantly as sales improved. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor, unit labor costs fell by 4.6% in 2009, the largest drop since the war.

"By mid-2009, the company was producing very few goods with very few workers," wrote Fortune editor Sean Dooley. "Even as sales began to slowly grow, the headcount continued to decline."