Amazon reported stellar earnings Thursday after the market close, shocking Wall Street and sending its stock soaring.
The company reported revenues of $23.18 billion, up 20% year-over-year and ahead of analysts' expectations of $22.39 billion.
Amazon also released data on its global headcount. The ecommerce giant employed 183,100 workers globally as of the end of Q2 on June 30.
That's an increase of 18,000 people since Q1, not including contractors or temporary personnel — the biggest quarterly increase in the company's history.
It's also a 38% increase over the company's headcount at the same time last year, when it employed a workforce of 132,600 people.
"The vast majority of that is in operations, where we're adding people for our new [fulfillment centers] and call centers," Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said during Thursday's earnings call. "We continue to look for smart, innovative people who want to build on behalf of customers."
Despite the massive increase in headcount, Amazon managed to surprise Wall Street by turning a profit during the second quarter. The company reporter earnings per share of $0.19, while analysts had estimated a loss of $0.14.
For the first time ever, Amazon has also shared how many people it employs in the state of Washington.
During an interview with the Puget Sound Business Journal published Thursday, company spokesperson Sam Kennedy confirmed that Amazon currently employs 24,000 people in Washington.
Given Amazon's ongoing office construction in Seattle, the Business Journal estimated that the company could employ as many as 71,500 people in Washington by 2019. As of this writing, Amazon has more than 4,600 open positions in Seattle alone.
"We made a decision to invest in our hometown and build an urban campus in the heart of Seattle," Kennedy told the Business Journal. "We consistently hear from our employees that they love to live and work in an exciting and vibrant community."
