Amazon plans to hire 150,000 seasonal workers, the same as in 2021, ahead of the holidays; Walmart plans to hire 40,000, down from 150,000 in 2021
Context & Ripple Effects
Amazon’s holiday hiring returned to the 150,000-worker level it set in 2021, after the company’s pandemic-era staffing push included temporary workers who were later offered permanent roles. The 2022 plan contrasts sharply with Walmart’s much smaller seasonal intake.
The announcement became a baseline for Amazon’s subsequent holiday expansion: its 2023 plan for 250,000 U.S. hires moved well above the level reported here.
First-order effects
- Amazon enters the holiday period seeking 150,000 seasonal workers, while Walmart seeks 40,000 rather than the 150,000 it targeted in 2021.
- Seasonal job seekers and local logistics labor markets face substantially more immediate demand from Amazon than from Walmart.
Second-order effects
- Amazon’s larger recruiting campaign puts greater pressure on Walmart to fill holiday roles from the same pool of warehouse, delivery, and retail workers.
- The gap signals that holiday fulfillment capacity is being added more aggressively by Amazon than by Walmart, shifting competitive emphasis toward Amazon’s delivery and warehouse network.
Third-order effects
- Amazon’s later increase to 250,000 holiday hires in 2023 suggests that seasonal staffing became a recurring lever for expanding peak-period logistics capacity rather than a one-off return to 2021 levels.
- If retailers continue to diverge in seasonal hiring, holiday retail competition will increasingly reflect differences in fulfillment-network scale as well as store-level staffing.
The trend: Holiday retail is becoming more unevenly dependent on large-scale logistics hiring, with Amazon expanding seasonal capacity faster than Walmart in the coverage provided.