Amazon hired 500,000 employees in 2020 and now directly employs 1.3 million people worldwide.

Judge as of April 2021. True: Amazon's 10-K for 2020 reports about 1.3 million employees at the end of 2020 (roughly 1.25 to 1.35 million), and Amazon's dated announcements or filings show about 500,000 people hired during 2020 (roughly 475,000 to 525,000). Mostly true: both figures are approximately right, with a small slip, for example net headcount growth stated as hires, or a hire count somewhat outside that range. Mixed: one figure holds and the other is materially wrong. Mostly false: the figures distort real data, for example counting seasonal or contract workers as direct employees. False: the reported headcount or hiring figures are far from those stated.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 AMAZON COM INC (AMZN) | 10-K | 10-K | Period: 2020-12-31 | Filed: 2021-02-03 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Amazon.com, Inc. Form 10-K) · 3 February 2021

   “As of December 31, 2020, we employed approximately 1,298,000 full-time and part-time employees.”

2. E2 Amazon now employs nearly 1.3 million people worldwide after adding 500,000 workers in 2020 GeekWire · 2 February 2021

   “Amazon brought on a whopping 500,000 workers in 2020 to help the tech giant meet increasing demand for its online shopping and cloud computing services, fueled by the pandemic.”

3. E3 Amazon now employs nearly 1.3 million people worldwide after adding 500,000 workers in 2020 GeekWire · 2 February 2021

   “Amazon’s current total headcount is actually larger the figures noted above, as they do not include hundreds of thousands of seasonal and contract workers.”

Amazon's 2020 Form 10-K (E1) reports about 1,298,000 full-time and part-time employees as of December 31, 2020, which falls within the 1.25 to 1.35 million range. A GeekWire report from February 2021 (E2) says Amazon "brought on a whopping 500,000 workers in 2020," which matches the hiring figure in the claim. GeekWire also says (E3) that the headcount figures leave out seasonal and contract workers, so the 1.3 million figure does not count them as direct employees. The evidence does not show whether the 500,000 figure was gross hires or net headcount growth, but as reported it supports the claim.