Amazon is basically a small country at this point. If you gathered every single person who works there and put them in one place, you’d have a population larger than Estonia or Cyprus. It’s a massive, sprawling machine that never really stops moving. But honestly, trying to pin down exactly how many people does Amazon employ is like trying to count raindrops in a storm—the number shifts every single day because of the way they hire, fire, and scale for the holidays.
As of early 2026, the global headcount sits right around 1.58 million people.
That is a staggering number. To put it in perspective, Amazon is the second-largest private employer in the United States, trailing only Walmart. But while Walmart is a traditional retailer, Amazon is this weird, hybrid beast that’s part software company, part shipping giant, and part movie studio.
Most of these folks—about 1.1 million of them—are based right here in the U.S.
Where Everyone Actually Works
When people ask about Amazon’s workforce, they’re usually thinking of two very different worlds. You have the corporate side, where people are obsessed with AWS (Amazon Web Services) and AI, and then you have the fulfillment side.
The logistics side is the real muscle. This is the "blue-collar" heart of the company. We’re talking about more than a million people working in those massive, grey warehouses you see off the highway. They’re the ones scanning your packages, driving the branded vans, and managing the sorters.
Then you have the "white-collar" corporate side. This group is much smaller, roughly 350,000 people. These are the engineers, the marketing managers, and the HR teams. Interestingly, this is the area where we’ve seen the most turbulence lately.
The 2025-2026 "Efficiency" Shift
If you’ve been following the news, you know Amazon has been on a bit of a diet. After the pandemic, they realized they might have over-hired. In late 2025, they announced a plan to cut about 14,000 corporate roles.
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Why? Because CEO Andy Jassy is obsessed with making Amazon "the world’s largest startup." He wants to remove layers of middle management. Insiders are even suggesting that by May 2026, the total number of corporate job cuts could ripple out to nearly 30,000 positions.
It’s a pivot. They are literally taking the money they save on human managers and pouring it—about $100 billion of it—into generative AI and data centers. They aren’t just trying to save money; they’re trying to change what their workforce looks like.
The Seasonal Surge: The 250,000 Person Wave
Amazon’s employee count behaves like an accordion. It expands every October and snaps back every January.
For the 2025 holiday season, they brought on 250,000 seasonal workers in the U.S. alone. That’s a quarter of a million people hired in just a few weeks. These roles are the lifeblood of "Prime Day" and "Black Friday."
- Average Seasonal Pay: Around $19 per hour.
- Path to Permanent: Amazon says about a third of these seasonal hires end up staying or returning.
- The "On-Demand" Shift: Unlike Target, which relies more on existing staff for extra hours, Amazon still prefers the "mass hire" model to handle the holiday crush.
The State-by-State Breakdown
California is the king of Amazon employment. In 2020, it surpassed Washington (where HQ1 is located) as the state with the most workers. Currently, California has over 170,000 employees.
Texas is a close second with about 95,000, and Washington holds the third spot with 85,000. If you live in a state with a major shipping port or a massive population center, chances are Amazon is one of the biggest employers in your backyard.
There are only a few places where Amazon hasn't really set up shop yet. Places like Wyoming, Vermont, and Alaska still have very low "physical" footprints compared to the rest of the country.
The "Turnover" Elephant in the Room
We have to talk about the churn. It’s no secret that working in an Amazon fulfillment center is grueling. Some internal documents leaked a few years ago suggested that Amazon was losing people so fast they were worried about "running out of people to hire" in certain U.S. metro areas.
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Almost 50% of hourly employees leave within their first year.
That’s a huge number. To combat this, Amazon has been pumping money into "upskilling." They have this program called "Career Choice" where they prepay tuition for degrees and certificates. They’ve already put over 700,000 people through some form of training. It’s a smart move—if people feel like they’re building a career rather than just moving boxes, they’re more likely to stick around.
What the Future Holds
By 2030, the "how many people does Amazon employ" answer might look very different. The company is currently testing "Digit," a bipedal robot that can move empty totes.
As robotics get better, that 1.1 million warehouse worker number might actually start to shrink. But for now, they are still hiring. They just increased the average base pay for fulfillment workers to over $22 per hour to keep up with the competition.
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Actionable Insights for You
If you’re looking at these numbers because you’re thinking about a job there, or you’re an investor, keep these things in mind:
- Watch the "PXT" unit. Amazon is gutting its Human Resources (People Experience and Technology) department by up to 15% through mid-2026. They are replacing recruiters with AI. If you're applying, your first "boss" will likely be an algorithm.
- Corporate vs. Warehouse. The corporate world at Amazon is currently in a "re-org" phase. If you're looking for stability, the technical AWS side is much safer than middle management in retail.
- Check Local "WARN" Notices. If you live in California or Washington, these filings are public. They give you a heads-up on exactly where layoffs are happening before they hit the headlines.
- Leverage the Upskilling. If you take a job at a fulfillment center, your goal should be to use their $2.5 billion Future Ready 2030 fund. Get the certification, then move on. Use them like they use the data—efficiently.
Amazon isn't just a store; it's a massive social experiment in how many humans and robots can work together. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing depends entirely on whether you're the one getting the package or the one packing it.