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First, Amazon ($AMZN) was coming to New York City with a massive headquarters in Long Island City. Then, city activists pushed back, and Amazon went away, saying "A number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence."

That was back in February. At the time, Amazon job listings in New York had grown to 682, up from 500 in the new year. A bit of growth, sure, but nothing to signal a major commitment to New York.

So we all moved on. Or did we?

As we're learning this week, what Amazon says and what Amazon does are two different things. Now we are learning that Amazon plans to lease space in Manhattan to house 1,500 employees. Meanwhile, a quick look at its hiring activity shows that, despite the HQ2 pullout last February, the company has been on an unprecedented hiring spree in NYC.

Those post-breakup 682 job openings in the city are now 782.

Since last year — or December 10, 2018, to December 10, 2019 — Amazon is hiring for 300 more people, a growth of 62%. As of this week, the company has 782 job openings listed in New York, New York.

And that's not even the most it's listed here in the city: On June 12, 2019, Amazon listed 950 openings in New York City. That's an 89% jump in listings since January 1.

In short, despite announcing the now-infamous New York City pull out in February, Amazon did the exact opposite of what one would expect: it went on a hiring spree in New York City.

New York is now the second-most in-demand city for Amazon behind only Seattle and having tied Herndon.

The growth of job openings in New York for Amazon mirrors overall growth in hiring activity for Amazon, which now lists more than 32,000 openings worldwide. And while worldwide Amazon openings have grown an impressive 51% since January 1, New York City's 62% growth far outpaces even that.

About the Data:

Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.

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