Essentially, service is the most common ingredient among the largest companies in the United States, whether they are publicly or privately held employers. Thus, people who are in a dilemma of selecting between jobs that they love and a well-paying job can certainly have the best of both worlds.

The largest among a number of American employers is the United States Federal Government. They are housing over four million employees worldwide - from counting the pencils at the General Services Administration and delivering mail at the post offices to uniformed military services and negotiating various foreign heads of state.

According to USA Today, Walmart is the leading American employer, housing a workforce of about 2.2 million people. However, the number of workforce or the wage of its employees isn't the determining factor of dubbing a certain company as the largest employer in the U.S.

Below are ten of the best and largest employers in the country today.

10. General Electric Co. (Conglomerate) GE is among the few US-established public corporations that houses more than 300,000 employees both in full-time and part-time. The company has been the major source of technological innovation such as the production of refrigerators, incandescent lights, and jet engines. Currently, they are planning to hire thousands of engineers in improving the software capabilities of their machineries.

9. Hewlett-Packard. (Technology) The company houses almost 400,000 workers from different parts of the globe. However, they are currently on the verge of massive job cuts because of their acqusition of Autonomy, the software company, due to allegations of accounting fraud, according to CNET.

8. Home Depot. (Home improvement) The company employs around 350,000 workers, but only about 15 percent of them were salaried while the remainder of the operating personnel is working either hourly or on a part-time basis. However, the current CEO, Frank Blake, has removed the previous pay limits in order for the company to hire experts. 

7. Kroger. (Grocery stores) Kroger Corporation employs more than 300,000 part-time and full-time workers. The majority of its employees are under collective bargaining agreements negotiated by its local unions.

6. Target. (Retail) The company employs more than 350,000 full-time, part-time, and seasonal workers with hiring increasing during the holiday season. For instance, their employment population can reach as up to more than 400,000 during Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons.

5. United Parcel Service. (Delivery and freight) UPS had around 320,000 employees in the United States alone. Majority of its population were hired through contracts based on an agreement with Teamsters and other unions.

4. IBM. (Technology) The International Business Machines Corporation employs almost 500,000 individuals at the end of 2012. Equiped with high-skilled workers, five of its employees are awarded with a Nobel Prize. Recently, the company had to cut costs due to the falling demand for new servers.

3. McDonald's. (Fast food) This popular fast food chain houses 440,000 employees in the US alone. In the recent years, the company was dubbed with low-quality paying jobs known as "McJobs." However, the company recently offered a budget calculator to help employees balance their income and expenses. With this, their recruiting drive led to more than 60,000 new jobs.

2. Yum! Brands. (Fast food) The company that owns KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell had more than 500,000 employees by the end of 2012. Majority of them are hourly workers and  based abroad. The company adds to the country's job growth with an additional 15,000 jobs due to the launch of their latest item - the Doritos Locos Taco.

1. Wal-Mart. (Retail) Wal-Mart employs more than two million globally, with 1.3 million employees operating in the United States. This makes its U.S. workforce the largest global workforce than any other business companies in America. There is a debate however whether the company provides adequate wages for its employees.  

Surely, these companies provide promising job opportunities in the United States. However, one should keep in mind that the size of the company has nothing to do with its capacity for training, directing, managing and compensating the needs of its employees.