At the end of last year, Amazon reported that it employed almost 1.3 million people, with roughly 950,000 employees in the U.S. alone. That means that roughly 1 in every 150 American workers get a paycheck from Jeff Bezos and Company
During the holiday period, that number goes up even more.
This year Amazon announced it would take on 150,000 seasonal employees to help fulfill the demand of the final few months of the year — something the company has pretty much always done.
That 150,000 may not be the biggest seasonal hiring Amazon has ever done, but for some context it's essentially the equivalent of hiring the entire workforce of Nike... twice.
Most of the roles are somewhere in Amazon's enormous supply chain; delivery, warehouse work and fulfillment — and it's not the only company hiring. Walmart plans to hire a similar number and Target needs 100,000. Hiring that number of people, at a time when the labor market is really hot (re: the great resignation) and supply chains are already creaking, might not be as easy as it used to be.
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