Amazon ($AMZN) is playing it safe, despite its bid to ramp up hiring and satisfy rising consumer demand amid a global pandemic. 

At Amazon, Medical, Health, and Safety job postings have risen more than 80% in 2020, as the Seattle-based e-commerce titan tries to maintain safety standards amid the Coronavirus outbreak. Year-over-year, job postings in this segment are up more than three-fold, as Amazon works to better take control of the supply chain and delivery parts of its business. 

Still, on Tuesday, hundreds of workers pledged to sick-out of warehouses where they said safety standards need to improve. Earlier this week Business Insider reported that Amazon's Whole Foods is quietly tracking staffers that might unionize. Previously, we've reported on Amazon's Whole Foods hiring, which is on the decline as of late. Separate reports indicate federal regulators are monitoring Amazon's actions after it also fired staffers who spoke out against the company. 

This next chart helps to underscore why Amazon has to staff up from a health and safety perspective - and may go a little way to highlight why it has struggled to manage and communicate with its own warehouse staff during the pandemic. Fulfillment and Operations Management job postings, which include roles in managing or working with shipments, are up more than 55% in 2020. 

It comes as people all over the world are taking on drastically new purchasing patterns, and utilizing e-commerce companies to do it. Amazon users are buying freezers as more hoard food in anticipation of a disruption to the grocery supply chain; they've taken grooming into their own hands via DIY-hair-kits; and still, others are snatching security cameras up left and right, possibly in anticipation of rising crime. 

Amazon is also seeing some sellers jack up prices for things consumers covet - whether that's routers, Nintendo Switches, or other products where they can extract a few bucks extra from consumers with no other choices for shopping - for now. 

We'll learn more about Amazon's staffing and its plans when it announces earnings next week. 

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: 

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