Quarterly earnings call reveals Amazon employs 950,000 people in the U.S.
Amazon revealed it employs nearly 1 million people in the U.S. during its quarterly earnings call with reporters on July 29.
The company employs 1.3 million people worldwide and has a starting pay of $15 an hour, more-than doubling the current U.S. federal minimum wage.
Amazon ranks behind only Walmart for most people employed in the U.S. The retail giant employs around 1.6 million people in the U.S. and roughly 2.3 million people across the globe.
“We certainly see stronger demand for workers,” Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky told reporters during the conference call. “So far, we’ve had good success in hiring them with our wage and benefit package that’s pretty competitive. So we’re watching it carefully. But it’s probably one of the bigger elements of inflation in our business right now.”
The company is investing in features and incentives to help attract and retain employees, including introducing new mental health benefit programs for all U.S. employees and their families.
According to a news release, Amazon is also spending more than $300 million on a variety of safety projects throughout this year, including upgrading workstations, re-engineering some operations and implementing new-and-improved safety features.
The company also has committed to hiring 100,000 military veterans and their spouses by 2024.
“We’re spending a lot of money on signing and incentives, and while we have very good staffing levels, it’s not without a cost,” Olsavsky told reporters.
Amazon added an additional 64,000 employees during this year’s second quarter and has had to double the size of its fulfillment and delivery network over the past 18 months, according to Olsavsky.
Olsavsky told reporters the company still plans to have employees return to working in person in September and will not require proof of vaccination against COVID-19.
The June quarter marked the last under founder Jeff Bezos as company’s CEO. The role was officially handed over to Andy Jassy on July 5, with Bezos transitioning into a role as executive chairman.
Amazon expects third quarter sales to land within the range of $106 billion and $112 billion. Consensus estimates are placing sales at $119.2 billion.
“Our customers are safe and healthy and ordering from us. And we know that there’ll be more vacations or be more mobility. They’ll be things that probably people shied away from last year and that’s all good,” Olsavsky said on the call. “But it does tend to lead them to do other things besides shop. So we’re just adjusting our run rates in the, in the period that we see that happening.”
Leave a Reply