Amazon ended the fourth quarter with 1,525,000 employees, up by 25,000 people from the third quarter but down 1% from a year ago, and still well below its peak of more than 1.6 million employees two years ago.
The hiring slowdown reflects a conscious decision to control headcount and focus on efficiencies.
“We are investing, and we are adding in some areas,” said Brian Olsavsky, Amazon’s chief financial officer, on a conference call with reporters following the company’s quarterly results. “But there’s a general feeling in most teams that we’re looking to hold the line on headcount, perhaps go down as we can drive efficiencies.”
Given the size of Amazon’s business, Olsavsky added, that approach “creates positive leverage pretty quickly, especially versus the headcount growth we had seen in prior years.”
He concluded, “We’re going to continue to be careful on what we invest in. We’re going to continue to invest in new things and new areas, and things that are resonating with customers. And where we can find efficiencies and do more with less, we’re going to do that as well.”
Amazon posted record operating profits of $13.2 billion in the fourth quarter, nearly five times its operating profits of $2.7 billion in the same quarter last year. Overall, the company topped expectations, reporting record revenue of $169.9 billion, up 14% year-over-year, and earnings per share of $1.00.
The company’s shares jumped more than 6% in after-hours trading.
Speaking with analysts, Olsavsky credited an improvement in Amazon Web Services quarterly operating profit margin to headcount reductions from earlier in the year and a slowdown in the pace of hiring. AWS posted $7.2 billion in operating profits on $24.2 billion in revenue, a margin of more than 29%, up from $5.2 billion in operating profits on $21.4 billion in revenue a year ago, a profit margin of 24%.
Amazon cut a total of 27,000 jobs companywide amid broader tech layoffs last year.
