(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. says it will hire 100,000 people to help meet holiday shopping season demand, half the total of last year after the company dramatically boosted staffing during the pandemic.

Last year, Amazon hired 200,000 seasonal employees to handle the rush of orders during the fourth quarter. But this year, Amazon has already experienced holiday-like demand, reaping record sales, from shoppers turning to online ordering during the coronavirus pandemic.

Amazon added more than 175,000 workers during a hiring binge that began in March and later said it would keep on most of those recruits. The company followed that up last month with a pledge to hire 100,000 people for its logistics network.

In a blog post on Tuesday announcing its seasonal hiring, Amazon also said it had promoted some 35,000 employees in its operations group this year. The shares have surged more than 73% this year.

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