Amazon to hire 250K ahead of the holiday rush
Amazon announced it will hire hundreds of thousands of new employees just in time for the holiday season. The company said it’ll hire 250,000 workers across the U.S. to handle what it expects will be a surge in holiday orders.
The company said regular, part-time and seasonal positions will be available. Its seasonal jobs pay $19 an hour on average, while regular employees earn approximately $23 per hour, plus benefits.
Amazon announced that openings will be posted weekly through December. It said they anticipate the roles to fill quickly, potentially within minutes of being posted.
“Seasonal roles offer great pay, flexible schedules, and the chance to be a part of a team that makes a real difference during the holidays,” Amazon said in a news release. “Every year, we meet employees who started as seasonal hires and go on to become managers, trainers, or leaders across our buildings, and we love that people everywhere can make these jobs what they want them to be.”
Amazon’s 2025 holiday hiring marks the third consecutive year the company has added a quarter of a million people.
Seasonal hiring forecast
Amazon’s hiring spree is an outlier in the market, however. Across the retail industry, seasonal jobs are expected to hit their lowest level since 2009, when the economy was emerging from a recession.
According to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the low forecast numbers are due to various factors. These factors include higher business costs from U.S. tariffs, inflationary pressures and automation.
Challenger predicts that retailers may add fewer than 500,000 positions this holiday season. That number is down from approximately 543,000 in the final quarter of 2024.
“While we could see a late hiring push if holiday sales surprise to the upside, the cautious pace of announcements so far suggests that companies are not betting on a big seasonal surge. This year may be more about doing more with less,” said Andy Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Other retailers hiring
While Amazon’s hiring numbers are the highest, it is not the only company to announce holiday hiring. Bath and Body Works announced it will hire 32,000 workers. Spirit Halloween plans to add 50,000.
Kohl’s and Target also announced additional hires, but did not detail how many.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
