SEATTLE – Amazon.com plans to hire more than 300,000 workers during the holiday shopping season, up 20% from 2025, making it a stand-out in an otherwise lacklustre holiday jobs market.
The positions include full-time, part-time and seasonal roles, with temporary workers earning an average of US$20 (S$25) per hour, Amazon said in a blog on Oct 20.
The Seattle-based company is incentivising seasonal workers to stay through the year by offering medical benefits to those who remain in January and work at least 30 hours each week.
Seasonal retail hiring will likely fall below 450,000 jobs created in 2025, which would mark the lowest holiday recruitment since 2008, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas.
Large retailers like Walmart and Target have again refrained from announcing their seasonal recruiting plans, marking a departure from pandemic-era hiring sprees.
Seasonal hiring for logistics and warehouse companies will be about flat from 2025, Challenger, Gray and Christmas estimated.
“Almost every hiring announcement we’ve seen in the last three years is smaller and more surgical than the pre-pandemic playbook,” said Andy Challenger, the firm’s chief revenue officer.
US shoppers will spend US$275.1 billion online in November and December, up 6.7% from 2025, according to Adobe. Amazon captures almost 40 US cents of every dollar spent online, according to EMarketer.
United Parcel Service, which has been reducing package volume from Amazon to focus on more profitable business segments, earlier in October announced plans to hire more than 100,000 seasonal workers, which is roughly in line with previous years. BLOOMBERG
