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Microsoft’s employee count does not include the full impact of the 18,000 job cuts announced by the company this summer.

Amazon.com is showing no signs of slowing down, despite increasing losses.

The Seattle-based company — which is expanding its footprint in media, advertising, devices and cloud services — added nearly 40,000 employees in the past 12 months.

A sign outside of Amazon's HQ in Seattle. Photo via Matt Shobe.
A sign outside of Amazon’s HQ in Seattle. Photo via Matt Shobe.

According to the company’s third quarter earnings report, Amazon employed 149,500 full-time and part-time workers for the period ended Sept. 30. That’s up from 109,800 workers for the same period last year. The growth excludes contractors and temporary personnel, though those areas also are growing. Amazon announced earlier this month that it plans to hire 80,000 seasonal workers this holiday, a 14 percent increase over last year’s totals.

The question remains: How long can Amazon keep this hiring engine humming?

Based on the construction in Seattle’s South Lake Union and Denny Triangle neighborhoods, the company does not plan to stop anytime soon. Amazon is expanding its footprint in downtown Seattle, with plans for several new office buildings.

The online giant plans to build three 38-story office towers and an eye-catching three-sphere biodome on the new 3-block campus that it acquired for more than $1.1 billion, which will compliment Amazon’s current headquarters campus in South Lake Union. It also recently announced plans for an additional 778,000 square feet of office space across two buildings near the Denny Triangle campus.

The company also is expanding overseas, with Amazon.com CFO Thomas Szkutak saying in a conference call with analysts that “we are investing right now.”

That’s certainly an understatement.

Seriously, the war for talent is real, but Szkutak addressed concerns over hiring today by saying they are maintaining a “high bar” when it comes to new recruits.

Follow-upAmazon takes $170M write-down on Fire Phone

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