At the end of March 2020, Amazon listed 41,100 openings on its career recruiting websites for the Amazon group alone (not including Whole Foods, Ring, and other wholly-owned companies). Those openings also didn't include tens of thousands of temporary and contract positions for Amazon's inundated logistics, warehousing, and fulfillment operations.

But as of today, the company is hiring for 35,400 positions. That's a clear downtick from March's high — a 13.87% drop in openings.

But, let's be clear: Amazon ($AMZN) is still hiring for more than 35,000 positions. That number is 16.1% higher than the 30,500 jobs Amazon was hiring for at this time last year. The e-commerce giant has fared well during the pandemic: order volume is up and stock prices soared more than 27% in the first quarter of the year.

And while the company missed earnings estimates, the company recently said that it would an estimated $4 billion in second-quarter profit on Covid-19 tests for its workers, shoring up its infrastructure, and hiring researchers, engineers, and procurement specialists to bulk up Amazon's testing capacity.

So who is Amazon hiring now? Software Development continues to be the company's most in-demand team, followed by Solutions Architects.

Other in-demand categories include Fulfilment & Operations, Project Management, and Sales. Over the past few months, Operations, IT, & Support Engineering positions have declined, however. Fulfillment & Operations has increased in demand since at least July 2019. 

Amazon Web Services, the company's most profitable business unit, remains a distant second in terms of openings to Amazon's main "Amazon.com Services LLC". 

Amazon remains a largely Seattle operation, with openings slated for its Northwestern headquarters far outpacing Bangalore, London, and New York. It is worth noting, however, that Amazon New York is now the third most in-demand location while San Francisco has dropped to the company's 8th most in-demand location. Just last year, San Francisco was a top-5 hiring destination for the company.

In an economy that's seen more than 30 million people file for unemployment for the first time, seeing a company like Amazon still hiring for more than 35,000 positions is a bit of a silver lining. While the company certainly has some questionable HR and workplace policies, for those looking for work and even benefits, it may be an option.

About the Data:

Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales, and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue, and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales. 

Further Reading: