Google, Apple, & Microsoft top LinkedIn’s list of most desirable employers

LinkedIn has released a new list of the most desirable companies to work for, and the technology sector is clearly favored, with Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook sitting at the top.

The rankings are based on the “actual actions of over 175 million professionals on LinkedIn,” according to LinkedIn senior manager Michael Li. He writes:

We cross-referenced our data with thousands of survey responses to pinpoint the specific activities that best indicate familiarity and interest in working for a company: connecting with employees, viewing employee profiles, visiting Company and Career Pages, and following companies. After crunching this data and normalizing for things like company size, we developed our top 100 global list. We then applied LinkedIn profile data to rank the most sought-after employers among professionals in five countries and four job functions.

Of the top 100, 21 companies were labeled as “technology and software” providers, the highest of any category. “Retail and consumer” businesses had 20 companies, “professional services” had 16, and “oil and energy” had 10.

Notably, major brands were listed frequently, but half of the top 100 have fewer than 7,000 employees.

Here’s the top 50:

1. Google
2. Apple
3. Microsoft
4. Facebook
5. Unilever
6. General Electric
7. Pepsico
8. P&G
9. McKinsey & Company
10. The Coca-Cola Company
11. The Walt Disney Company
12. Nike
13. Salesforce.com
14. Twitter
15. Shell
16. Nestle
17. BCG
18. Ogilvy & Mather
19. Expedia
20. Accenture
21. Pfizer
22. Johnson & Johnson
23. L’Oreal
24. Adidas
25. Amazon
26. Bain & Company
27. Roche
28. Diageo
29. Burberry
30. Chevron
31. Razorfish
32. BP
33. Starbucks
34. Warner Bros.
35. Electronic Arts
36. Samsung
37. HP
38. Total
39. Netflix
40. Red Bull
41. Groupon
42. Zynga
43. ExxonMobil
44. ThoughtWorks
45. Bechtel
46. VMware
47. LVMH
48. Kraft Foods
49. Red Hat
50. Oliver Wyman

For more data behind this list, here’s an infographic from LinkedIn: