Why Amazon could run out of employees in the United States by 2024

Amazon could face a new challenge soon: that of finding enough employees to fill all of its vacant positions in the United States. Currently, the company is the second largest private employer in the country. At the end of 2021, it totaled more than a million employees (1,120,602, to be exact).

But an internal note, revealed by the media Vox’s Recodeindicates that if the company continues its momentum, “Amazon will exhaust the workforce available in the US market by 2024”.

The report targeted several areas in particular. To establish their calculations, the authors evaluated the workforce available around the various Amazon sites, and not taking into account all the workers available in the United States. This led them to single out certain regions in particular, such as Phoenix (the report already noted a depletion of human resources by the end of 2021), or theInland Empire in California. In this last area, “Amazon could have exhausted all candidates potentially interested in a job in a warehouse by the end of 2022”specified the internal note.

A pharaonic and incessant rolling

Among the factors leading to this conclusion, several are known and sometimes common to other companies: an unemployment rate at historically low levels in the United States, the health crisis, or even competition from other companies.

But the main challenge for Amazon remains its pharaonic turnover rate. As pointed out The Guardian, before the Covid-19 health crisis, Amazon recorded a renewal of its workforce of 150% on an annual basis. They were replaced by new ones which, for the most part, would in turn be replaced. This rate is astronomical, knowing that the average for the transport and warehouse sector is… 49%. A turnover reinforced by difficult working conditions, wear and tear on the workforce, very high pressure and meticulously controlled worker profitability.

This policy was approved by Jeff Bezos, who feared that employees present for too long would show signs of dissatisfaction. This permanent renewal made it possible to have fresh workers and therefore less inclined to complain about their employer. But in 2021, in his last letter to shareholders as CEO of Amazon, he seemed to turn around, saying that the company “had to do better” in terms of employment for its workers. The goal of becoming “the best employer on earth” is, in this respect, far from being acquired…

“We continue to engage”

If Amazon has long been seen as a worker-crushing machine, the current situation may push the e-commerce giant to change its tune. The year 2022 saw the arrival of the first unions in certain warehouses, which foreshadows a better defense of workers and their working conditions. Michael Garrigan, former manager of Amazon in Phoenix, also explained that a certain flexibility had been installed at the level of the control of the workers, to avoid the departure of too many people. Citing strong concern about the labor shortage, he confided to Vox’s Recode that he “had become almost impossible for a worker to be fired”.

On the side of Amazon, we prefer to temporize. A spokeswoman explained that many notes circulated internally on many subjects, without necessarily being used for decision-making. “She does not represent the current situation. We continue to hire well in Phoenix and elsewhere in the country.”

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