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Head Count (Accounting)

Actual number of individuals carried on a firm's payroll, as opposed to the equivalent number computed from wages paid.

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/head-count.html

Dangers of relying on headcount:

Headcount obscures wage rates, making all staff equal in the eyes of the report. In such an analysis, adding a new senior executive could be offset by firing a single office assistant; clearly, any analysis based on such data would be worthless.

Nevertheless, head count (or "headcount") remains a common way for accounting departments to keep tabs on whether the employee population is growing or shrinking. It is also important for payroll professionals who