Amazon plans 300,000 holiday hires as seasonal roles include new benefits

Amazon plans to hire 300,000 workers for seasonal, part-time and full-time jobs during the Christmas shopping period, a 20 percent increase from last year. The company paired the hiring plan with expanded health coverage for some seasonal staff: employees logging at least 30 hours per week will receive the same health benefits as regular full-time employees, beginning Jan. 1.

Amazon said workers hired before Jan. 1 who qualify will gain coverage on that date, while eligible workers hired on or after Jan. 1 will have coverage from their first day. The announcement thus links the size of the holiday workforce to a benefits threshold based on weekly hours. Amazon's stated average pay for temporary workers is US$20 an hour.

The two accounts emphasize different parts of the hiring picture. The Epoch Times reports the planned workforce total, the 20 percent year-over-year rise and the benefits terms. The Straits Times adds the average hourly pay and places Amazon's plan alongside estimates for the wider retail, logistics and warehouse labor markets.

The Wall Street Journal's headline describes the hiring as more than 300,000 U.S. workers, while Bloomberg's headline says more than 300,000 and specifies a 20 percent increase from 2025; About Amazon's headline also describes more than 300,000 new U.S. jobs and mentions increased pay and expanded benefits. The broader employment figures point to a mixed seasonal labor market.

Seasonal job postings were about 10 percent higher as of Sept. 30 than a year earlier and remained above 2019 levels, according to the Epoch Times. In an Oct.

15 note, Stahle said many large employers had fewer seasonal postings than the previous year but were offering more part-time roles, which Stahle characterized as a possible sign of optimism for the closing months of 2026. For retail hiring overall, Challenger, Gray and Christmas estimated that seasonal recruitment would come in below the 450,000 jobs created in 2025.

If so, the firm said, it would be the lowest holiday recruitment since 2008. The firm separately estimated that logistics and warehouse companies would hire at roughly the same seasonal level as in 2025. Those estimates describe different sectors and do not determine how Amazon's own planned hiring compares with other employers.

Consumer spending is another part of the holiday-season backdrop. Adobe estimated that shoppers in the United States would spend US$275.1 billion online in November and December, a 6.7 percent increase from 2025. The Straits Times also cited EMarketer's estimate that Amazon accounts for almost 40 cents of each dollar spent online in the United States.

The hiring plan comes with a defined eligibility rule for the new benefit: seasonal employees must work at least 30 hours per week to qualify for the same health coverage as regular full-time staff. Amazon's stated Jan.

1 start date sets when eligible current and future hires gain access, while its average temporary-worker pay and the market estimates provide separate measures of the jobs and labor conditions surrounding the holiday season.