Amazon's army: Amazon now has 1.3 million employees, we explore how that has grown over time

4/15/21 8:00PM

Jeff Bezos has written his final shareholder letter as CEO of Amazon, the e-commerce company he started in 1995. Although he discusses the business, a significant focus of the letter is Amazon's employee base, which has been in the headlines a lot this year.

First the company denied that delivery drivers and other employees occasionally had to pee in bottles while at work in order to meet busy schedules, and then there was the battle to unionize in Alabama, which Amazon won.

It's perhaps no surprise that things with your employees sometimes go wrong when you have a workforce of 1.3 million people and a population the equivalent of the entire city of Atlanta (~500,000) joined your company last year alone. It's hard to make 13 employees 100% happy, let alone 1.3 million.

Nevertheless, this is really the Amazon founder's first admission that things could be improved for employees, with Bezos writing that "I think we need to do a better job for our employees". It doesn't get much more direct than that, perhaps Bezos 2.0 will change his customer-obsession into an employee-obsession.

Max Knoblauch3h

American Airlines joins the flock, hiking bag fees amid higher jet fuel prices

American Airlines on Thursday announced that it, too, will be hiking the fees it charges customers to check luggage.

With the move, all four of the major US airlines, which together control about 80% of the US market, have now hiked their baggage fees in recent days amid surging jet fuel prices.

The change will go into effect on tickets bought on or after Thursday, the same day Southwest’s hike begins.

Since late March, JetBlue, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Canada’s WestJet, and Southwest have hiked their fees. Experts expect more major carriers to follow, and to potentially tweak the pricing of other ancillary revenue sources like seat assignments and carry-on luggage.

American Airlines updates bag fees and Basic Economy fares

The change will go into effect on tickets bought on or after Thursday, the same day Southwest’s hike begins.

Max Knoblauch4h

Less than a year after implementing them, Southwest is also hiking its bag fees

Southwest Airlines has joined the growing list of airlines opting to hike their bag fees amid sustained higher jet fuel costs.

Starting today, the first checked bag at the carrier — which implemented bag fees less than a year ago — will jump from $35 to $45, and the second from $45 to $55. Southwest quietly disclosed the change Tuesday.

Southwest assigned the decision to “part of an ongoing analysis of the business and against the evolving global backdrop.”

As of Wednesday, jet fuel prices dropped to $4.16 a gallon, per the Argus US Jet Fuel Index, down from $4.81 on Tuesday following President Trump’s ceasefire announcement, which sent travel stocks soaring. Major airlines have shed some of those gains in premarket trading Thursday.

With the move to hike bag fees, Southwest joins JetBlue, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Canada’s WestJet, all of which also boosted fees this month. Experts expect more major carriers to follow, and to potentially tweak the pricing of other ancillary revenue sources like seat assignments and carry-on luggage.