As of today, Amazon ($AMZN) lists 36,305 openings on its HR recruiting website. That is not an error: Amazon is hiring more than thirty-six thousand people around the world.
And, as our data shows, Amazon's hiring pace appears to be accelerating as we head into 2020 and the company looks to cover the earth with its e-commerce and service network.
Around the new year, Amazon was hiring for abotu 32,000 people. By the end of January, that number was at 34,500 openings.
Amazon's hiring activity is global, as well. While its American HQ2 in Virginia and new shiny office in Manhattan planned for 2021 are getting a lot of the attention, the company is now hiring in at least 50 countries.
The top-20 countries in which Amazon is now hiring hasn't changed much over the last year: a focus on technology talent in the US and India, along with heavy hiring throughout Europe and Asia.
Amazon's focus on hiring in the US and India reflects where the talent is that it's going after, which is — unsurprisingly — focused on bringing in as much engineering talent as possible as the company continues to automate processes, streamline the customer experience, and over-engineer the company's supply-chain and logistical challenges.
A word cloud depicting Amazon's most in-demand job categories paints perhaps the clearest picture, and it reads like this: Software Development.
Amazon's recent focus on hiring in India is reflective of a recent trip to the country by CEO Jeff Bezos when he announced a $1 billion investment in "digitizing small and medium businesses" in India, along with plans to be exporting $10 billion worth of Indian goods by 2025.
"I want to make a prediction for you," he said in January. "I predict that the 21st century is going to be the Indian century."
His hiring activity there certainly shows that Amazon is putting its money where its mouth is.
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:
- Amazon job openings in New York City grew 89% in 2019
- Despite reports to the contrary, hiring at Amazon is down 22%
- Where Amazon has been hiring since 2018, and where New York fit in
