Amazon, we all love the speed and convenience of Amazon Primes’ next-day delivery; it’s amazing! Living in a major city has its perks, and this is definitely one of them.
Amazon is a household name, especially when it comes to purchasing books and streaming TV shows and movies. It’s an eCommerce site with a fantastic marketplace open to the whole world.
However, Amazon is so much more than just convenient online shopping. Its also highly involved in the IT sector withAmazon Alexaand artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and the aforementioned digital streaming withAmazon Prime Video.
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Plus, did you know Amazon has now taken over the Whole Foods franchise and delivers fresh groceries through one of their subsidiary’sAmazon Fresh? With all these avenues, it really does make you wonder How Many Employees does Amazon have?
Contents
- Where It All Began
- Employee Numbers of Amazon
- How Many Employees Does Amazon Have – Let’s Talk Statistics
- A change of focus…
- Holiday Season and Delivery Drivers
- Highest Paying Positions
- Principal Software Development Engineer – $160,000
- Senior Engineer Manager – $160,000
- Senior Manager, Software Developer – $159,788
- Principal Technical Program Manager – $154,343
- Corporate Counsel – $153,900
- Senior Solutions Architect – $153,500
- Senior Software Engineer – $152,400
- Senior Manager, Product Management – $151,550
- 500,000 New Employees During the Pandemic
- Here’s why…
- Want to know more about Online Shopping at Amazon?
- How Many Employees Does Amazon Have – Final Thoughts
Where It All Began
Amazon is the brainchild of Jeff Bezos, a former Wall Street worker who has a degree in electrical engineering and computer science. It was 1994 when he first created Amazon in a rented garage alongside his then-wife MacKenzie Bezos.
Interestingly, with MacKenzie being an author, they focussed on new and used books. This was a roaring success, and soon after, he opened the doors to a myriad of items and sellers, and Amazon morphed into the amazing online marketplace we see today.
Read more: How Long Is 1 Million Seconds
Employee Numbers of Amazon
As of 2021,Amazon employees a total of 1.6 million peopleacross the globe. This includes1.3 million in the US alone. It doesn’t take into account the extra seasonal holiday help, contract workers, or delivery drivers, which figures show to be in 100’s of 1000’s annually.
According to the US Bureau of Statistics, the nation’s private-sector workforce is around 161 million. Meaning that for every 169 people working in America, one person is working for Amazon. Whereas the only company to rival and beat Amazon as the biggest employer of this nation’s people is Walmart. Who sees figures of one from every 100 people employed within their conglomerate.
How Many Employees Does Amazon Have – Let’s Talk Statistics
2007 saw Amazon start off with 17,000 employees. Just five years later, in 2012, this number increased substantially to 88,400. That’s an increase of 80% and 71,400 staff. This is largely due to Amazon making several acquisitions each year from around 2005 onwards, including media websites and digital retailers.
If we look at the next five years, it takes us through to 2017, when Amazon employs 566,000 people. From 2012’s figures, that’s an extra 477,600 workers and an 84.3% increase.
A change of focus…
During this period, the company shifted its focus and stopped acquiring more online retailers. Instead, deciding to snap up technology startups like Elemental Technologies, ClusterK, andYap, which helpedAmazon Echoand Amazon Web Services really take off and explode on the market.
Our last five years have been widely interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and, most recently, the Russian vs. Ukraine war that broke out Feb 2023. Even during these trying times, Amazon’s official employees worldwide have jumped significantly, from 566,000 to 1,608,000 as of Dec 2021. That’s an incredible increase of 1,042,000 workers or 64.8%
As you can see from the chart below, the number of employees has increased each year incrementally, along with the growth of Amazon. With more traffic to the site from potential buyers to acquisitions of a multitude of different types of companies. The annual increase of employee percentages ranges from 14% – 39.4%.
| Year | Amazon Employees | Yearly Increase | Increase from Previous Year | Annual % Increase |
| 2007 | 17,000 | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| 2008 | 20,700 | 3,700 | 0 | 17.7% |
| 2009 | 24,300 | 3,600 |
| 14.8% |
| 2010 | 33,700 | 9,400 |
| 27.8% |
| 2011 | 56,200 | 22,500 |
| 40% |
| 2012 | 88,400 | 32,200 |
| 36.4% |
| 2013 | 117,300 | 28,900 |
| 24.6% |
| 2014 | 154,100 | 36,800 |
| 23.8% |
| 2015 | 230,800 | 76,700 |
| 33.2% |
| 2016 | 341,400 | 110,600 |
| 32.4% |
| 2017 | 566,000 | 224,600 |
| 39.6% |
| 2018 | 674,500 | 108,500 |
| 16% |
| 2019 | 798,000 | 123,500 |
| 15.5% |
| 2020 | 1,298,000 | 500,000 |
| 38.5% |
| 2021 | 1,608,000 | 310,000 |
| 19.3% |
Holiday Season and Delivery Drivers
It’s interesting to note that the figures on the above chart DO NOT include all of the seasonal staff or delivery partners, whether directly employed via Amazon or an independent company.
As of 2021, the extra seasonal staff hired yearly for the Thanksgiving and Christmas periods is another staggering 125,000. While the numbers are huge through Amazon’s Delivery Service Partners (DSP) program. There are around 3,000 companies located around the globe that, in turn, employ 260,000 drivers to deliver Amazon’s packages.
Highest Paying Positions
Since 2018, Amazon has been rewarding its workers with a $15 an hour minimum wage. This is more than double the minimum wage, which currently stands at $7.25 an hour on average across each of the 50 states.
If you are looking for the best paying positions within the Amazon cluster, your best bet is in the tech field, either as management or an engineer. Take a look at the highest paying positions going
Principal Software Development Engineer – $160,000
A Principal Software Development Engineer is a technical leader with a proven track record for building and growing data science and engineering teams.
Senior Engineer Manager – $160,000
A Senior Engineer Manager needs a proven track record of building software and creating architectural software using cloud technologies.
Senior Manager, Software Developer – $159,788
A Senior Manager or Software Developer is responsible for building products while procuring engineering and data science teams that deliver results.
Principal Technical Program Manager – $154,343
Principal Technical Program Managers define features and processes. They work with technical teams to implement sound solutions, drive projects, and analyze the results.
Corporate Counsel – $153,900
Corporate Counselors will collaborate with the legal team assisting business operations clients to maximize operational structuring. As well as ensuring regulatory compliances both state and federal and seeing strategic deals through to completion.
Senior Solutions Architect – $153,500
A Senior Solutions Architect provides thoughtful leadership and outstanding tech design, assisting the company’s exceptional sales and business development teams.
Senior Software Engineer – $152,400
These are needed to design and code databases, tablets, Kindle, streaming technologies, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and mobile devices.
Senior Manager, Product Management – $151,550
Product Management Leaders are responsible for creating tools and systems to provide the best, most compelling selection for the company’s global customers.
500,000 New Employees During the Pandemic
As seen in the table, in the year 2020, right when the world came to a grinding halt, Amazon upped its workers by a staggering 500,000. That’s bigger than any annual increase we’ve seen to date.
Here’s why…
During the pandemic, which started in March 2020, we saw the world as we know it completely change and shut down. There was ahuge increase in online shoppingfor both household and grocery items due to such tight restrictions everywhere. This, in turn, meant that Amazon needed more workers in its warehouses to meet its needs. Plus the manpower to safely deliver all these orders.
Also, the demand for Amazon’s cloud computing services (AWS) doubled as most workers, instead of heading into their offices and schools each day, had to get used toworking from home. Therefore, the strong computing power from their company’s computer systems, AWS, was needed by those working overtime to keep up with these in-house web requirements.
Want to know more about Online Shopping at Amazon?
If so, find outDoes Amazon Do Price Adjustments,Can You Hide Orders On Amazon, along with all the info you need about theAmazon Order Cancellation Policy. Or you may need to knowDoes Amazon Take Apple Pay,Does Amazon Accept Afterpay,Does Amazon Accept PayPal, or evenCan You Split Payments On Amazon? Or if you’ve got a gift card,Where Is The Claim Code On An Amazon Gift Card.
With regards to package arrival, find outDoes Amazon Prime Deliver On SundayandHow Late Does Amazon Deliver, as well as what to do ifAmazon Delivered To The Wrong Address, or how aboutHow To Buy Amazon Returnsto make some much-needed extra cash on the side.
If you’vejust started a job at Amazon, you will want to knowDoes Amazon Give Bonusesand all about their various policies, including theAmazon Termination Policy, theAmazon VTO Policy, theAmazon Transfer Policy, theAmazon HR Policy, theAmazon UPT Policy, and theAmazon Rehire Policyfor 2023.
How Many Employees Does Amazon Have – Final Thoughts
Despite Amazon and all its subsidiary companies already being one of theworld’s leaders in workforce numbers. According to Amazon’s CFO Brian Olsavsky, the demand for increasing their employment numbers remains at an all-time high.
With official employment figures in the millions and such great treatment for its workers. There are no signs ofjobs at Amazonbecoming scarce anytime soon. With great benefits and an amazing baseline rate of pay. Amazon is proving time and time again why it’s one of the leading employers across the globe.
Happy shopping with Amazon, or the best of luck if you’reapplying for a job at Amazon.
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