Amazon employee count
(GeekWire Graphic)

The number of people working for Amazon continues to go way, way up as the Seattle-based tech giant reached 566,000 employees worldwide during the fourth quarter of 2017 — an addition of 24,100 people in that timeframe.

Amazon shared the figure in its earnings report on Thursday. It represents full-time and part-time workers, but excludes contractors & temporary personnel.

Last quarter, employment jumped sharply to 541,900, mostly because of the acquisition of Whole Foods and the 87,000 people who worked for the grocery chain.

Amazon
Amazon employs more than 40,000 people in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)

This quarter’s jump was a 66 percent increase year over year from the 341,400 workers employed by the company at the end of 2016.

Amazon’s earnings recap made mention of its search for a second headquarters in North America — an effort which brought in proposals from 238 cities, and has since been narrowed to 20. Wherever that HQ2 lands, Amazon will be adding again to employee count in a big way, with a promised 50,000 high-paying jobs in the new city.

For comparison sake, Amazon now employs more people than live in the cities of Albuquerque, N.M., (559,000) or Tucson, Ariz., (530,000) and by next quarter will likely pass Milwaukee, Wisc. (595,000).

Amazon’s total employment is also catching up with Seattle’s total population (704,352), and is now bigger than its home city was in 2000 (564,000).

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