Amazon To Leave Rivals Behind With Binge Hiring For Holidays

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is gearing up to handle the rush during the upcoming holiday season. It has announced that it will hire over 120,000 seasonal workers, 20% higher than what it hired a year ago.

This Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company will be recruiting across the United States for jobs at its fulfillment and sorting facilities and customer service sites. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Last year, it hired 100,000 holiday workers out of which 14,000 became regular, full-time employees. This number is expected to increase significantly this year.

AMAZON.COM INC Price

Seasonal Hiring Spree

Amazon appears to be hiring the highest number of seasonal employees compared to some of its competitors. This massive employment plan underscores its confidence regarding its seasonal sales.

Rival retailers, on the other hand, are cautious and have either reduced their hiring compared to the year-ago level or kept it at the same level.

According to reports, while Target (NYSE:TGT) is hiring roughly 70,000 seasonal store employees, same as last year, Macy’s (NYSE:M) is taking on an additional holiday workforce of 83,000, compared to 85,000 last year. Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS) will hire over 69,000 workers, the same as last year.

This conservative stance of the rivals may be due to the fact that the economy still faces a number of challenges and consumer behavior remains cautious.

Cashing in on the Holiday Season

The National Retail Federation predicts a 3.6% rise in holiday sales to a record $655.8 billion, with online sales expected to ramp up by 7% to 8%. Therefore, it appears that Amazon is set to take advantage of the situation.

The growth of the e-commerce industry with consumers increasingly buying things online is a factor in favor of the company. Product offerings, a superior user experience, bargains and customer feedback have helped the company build a strong position for itself in the fast-growing e-commerce market.

While the big brands may build their own online stores over time, smaller players are far more dependent on Amazon as they don’t have the resources to invest in technology and fulfillment to generate the kind of reach that Amazon has.

Moreover, the market is in the early growth phase (considering opportunities in international markets). So the company’s high growth rates are likely to sustain over the next few years.

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