Amazon today released its Q3 2013 earnings report. Among all the financial figures was a very big one: the Seattle-based company now employs 109,800 people around the world.
Why is this significant? Not only has it passed the six-figure mark, but it has done so at a blistering rate; Amazon’s employee growth is frankly staggering.
Last quarter, it had 97,000 employees, meaning it hired 12,800 (a growth of 11.66 percent) in just three months. A year ago in the same quarter, Amazon had 81,400 employees, meaning it has hired 28,400 people in the last 12 months. That’s a jump of 25.87 percent in just a year.
To put things further into perspective for you, Microsoft has always had more employees than Amazon. This past quarter, the two Seattle-based companies shifted spots.
According to this Microsoft page, the company has 100,518 employees worldwide as of September 30, 2013. While that figure hasn’t been updated for October yet, it’s safe to say Microsoft didn’t hire 10,000 employees in just a month.
Microsoft was founded in April 1975. Amazon didn’t get incorporated until July 1994. Microsoft has thus had a solid two-decade head-start, keeping its employee numbers well out of Amazon’s reach.
