MIAMI, July 9, 2013 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Wal-Mart is by far the largest employer in Latin America finds the latest ranking of the region's employers from Latin Business Chronicle. The list ranks the region's top employers by number of employees in 2012. This is the fourth year the market intelligence service has published the list.

Between Wal-Mart and its affiliate Wal-Mart de Mexico, the company employs 624,025 across Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Central America. This is as much as the next four companies on the list combined and is expected to grow as the company plans to conquer new Latin American markets in the coming year.

While state oil companies such as Brazil's Petrobras, Mexico's Pemex, and Venezuela's PDVSA lead the region in revenues, they place lower on the list for number of employees. Petrobras employs a bit over 85,000 people, placing at number 27, while Pemex employs 151,022 and comes in at number 8. PDVSA meanwhile ranks at 13 with 111,342 employees.

The largest increase in the top 10 went to Chilean retailer Cencosud, which saw its number of employees increase by 20 percent last year. The retailer – which counts brands such as Jumbo hypermarkets, Easy home improvements, and Paris department stores – has greatly expanded its presence in the Brazilian and Colombian markets, while doubling down on present investments in Argentina, Chile, and Peru.

Meanwhile, the largest decrease was registered by Mexican homebuilder Corporacion Geo, whose employees were down 30.8 percent, and brought the company from number 67 to 91 in our ranking. This follows a tough year for the company, with revenues down $1.4 billion in 2012. Another Mexican construction company, ICA, registered the ranking's second-largest year over year decline, with a decline of 14.1 percent.

This year's ranking counts six new entries, including Mexican discount chain Bodega Aurrera , Brazilian conglomerate Cosan, Colombian financial institution Grupo Bancolombia, telecommunications giant Telefonica.

A few companies such as Sweden's Electrolux, Finland's Nokia, and Peru's Southern Copper – among others – fell off of our list.

Latin Business Chronicle, a division of the Latin Trade Group, offers key market intelligence beyond the daily headlines, through extensive rankings, indexes, and statistics.

About Latin Trade Group

Latin Trade Group is a leading provider of information and business services to companies operating in Latin America. It publishes award-winning content in Spanish and English for distribution throughout Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States through print, online media, and events. Latin Trade group publishes Latin Trade magazine, Latin Business Chronicle, and is the organizer of the Latin Trade Symposium and BRAVO Business Awards, the LT CFO Series for financial executives of multinational corporations and Trade Americas.

/Contact:  Santiago Gutierrez, Executive Editor, Latin Trade Group, 57-310-240-4415, sgutierrez@latintrade.com/

SOURCE Latin Trade Group