Bezos' Little Helpers

As Christmas is quickly approaching, retailers are gearing up for the final sprint of the holiday shopping season. That goes for brick-and-mortar stores as well as for online retailers, as the latter lure in last-minute shoppers with ultra-fast shipping offers.

The weeks leading up to the holidays are not only the most important but also the busiest time of the year for most retailers, as sales typically peak in November and December. Amazon’s revenue typically spikes by 40-60 percent in the holiday quarter compared to the rest of the year, putting an enormous strain on the company’s logistics backbone. As the chart illustrates, Amazon hires thousands of seasonal workers every year to help carry the workload across its network of fulfillment and sortation centers and customer service sites.

This year, Amazon hired a record number of 200,000 temporary workers for the holiday season in the U.S. alone, doubling the seasonal hiring spree from 2018. In a written statement quoted by Bloomberg, Amazon attributed the growth in seasonal workers to the increasing breadth of its logistics operations. As of September 30, Amazon had 750,000 full- and part-time workers worldwide, not including the 200,000 workers helping it through the holiday rush.