Amazon continues to fall short of annual hiring targets at its second headquarters in Northern Virginia despite the tech giant’s promises of a massive economic infusion to the area in exchange for as much as $750 million in public subsidies for the ongoing development.
The company failed to hit its annual job growth mark at its Crystal City campus in Arlington for the third year in a row, ending 2025 with 73 fewer new positions instead of adding the more than 1,600 new jobs projected for the year under its incentive agreement with the state of Virginia, according to an annual company progress report The Post obtained through an open records request. Amazon signed the agreement in 2018, saying it expected to add 25,000 new jobs to the area by 2038.
Now, certainty is waning amid a lurching global economy that led Amazon to cut 16,000 jobs elsewhere earlier this year, compounded locally by the lingering effects of Trump administration federal spending cuts.
The company should have added 11,643 jobs at the site in Crystal City it refers to as HQ2 by the end of 2025, according to the incentive agreement with the state. Instead, it has created 7,159 jobs as of Dec. 31 — which is 28.6 percent of the total goal, instead of the 46.5 percent mark the company expected.
Holly Sullivan, Amazon’s vice president of worldwide economic development policy, said economic forces beyond the company’s control have affected its ability to bring in more people faster.
When the projections were made in 2018, “No one had a crystal ball to predict how the tech industry and the economy would evolve over the next decade,” Sullivan said in a statement to The Post. “Like other major tech companies, we’ve experienced more moderate growth in recent years due to industry-wide headwinds. However, our commitment to Virginia has never wavered.”
“Our second headquarters has always been a long-term project,” Sullivan said in the statement.
The arrival of Amazon to Northern Virginia was heralded as a major economic victory for the D.C. region. The company has invested millions in multiple education initiatives across the state and has donated more than $239 million to local groups since 2018, including more than $60 million in the past year, Sullivan said in the annual progress report submitted to the state.
To lure Amazon to Arlington County, Virginia state officials offered a hefty incentive package to beat out 237 other locations vying to become home to the Seattle-based company’s second headquarters. Virginia state officials offered as much as $750 million in taxpayer-funded subsidies in exchange for Amazon building a campus that would house thousands of employees. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
The competition to see where the e-commerce company would plant itself was the “Super Bowl of economic development,” said Nathan Jensen, a professor of government at University of Texas at Austin.
The incentive agreement was finalized under then-Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D). Amazon’s Arlington campus officially opened while Glenn Youngkin (R) held the governor’s office.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) is now dealing with the impacts to Virginia of federal funding cuts and trade tariffs as she seeks to add more skilled jobs and lure businesses.
“From her first day in office, Gov. Spanberger has focused on creating a stable economic environment that benefits workers, businesses, and local communities across Virginia,” Jack Bledsoe, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, said in a statement. “Amazon is an important driver of economic growth in the region, and the Governor will continue to work with local and state leaders to support the businesses that call Virginia home.”
As part of its agreement with Amazon, state officials committed to paying the company $22,000 for each qualifying full-time job created at HQ2 that offered an average annual salary of $150,000. (That salary is supposed to climb slightly each year.) Positions are only eligible for the incentive payout if they meet certain criteria — such as being filled by a new hire rather than an existing employee transferred to the site. Virginia’s incentives for Amazon are also structured to ensure that the company maintains new jobs for at least five years.
The agreement also outlined annual job targets, such as adding 1,643 new jobs last year. Overall jobs at the Crystal City headquarters grew by 143 spots last year, but none of those met the necessary criteria for the incentive program.
The stalled job growth “clearly lowers the benefits” of having an Amazon headquarters in Arlington, said Tim Bartik, senior economist at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
Sullivan said in her statement that the projected annual new job additions were based on Amazon’s highest years of growth.
As the tech industry faces job cuts and low growth, Amazon is only “moderately confident” it will bring in as many jobs as it promised by the 2038 deadline, according to the company’s annual progress report to the state. Until last year, the company said in its reports that it had “high confidence” it would deliver the promised jobs by the deadline.
Under the ever-evolving technology landscape, Jensen said, writing 20-year long incentive contracts is “foolish” on the state government’s part. The state shouldn’t be “in the business of making these guesses,” he said, but instead needs to focus on creating more immediate value for communities.
“Companies often make these grandiose promises … to get these incredible deals,” Jensen said. “Sometimes you wonder if those numbers they announced were the most optimistic number possible — and that got them incredible attention.”
Near the occupied Amazon buildings in Crystal City, a giant empty lot sits as a reminder of Amazon’s other unfulfilled promises. The undeveloped land is the site of an expansion Amazon originally slated to finish construction in 2025. Amid changing workforce habits after the covid pandemic, Amazon indefinitely paused work at the site in 2023.
Sullivan said the buildings can accommodate up to 12,000 employees, which gives ample room for the company to grow within its footprint since total employment at the site sits just below 8,500.
“We are constantly assessing our real estate needs to support our teams, and we will continue do so. Just as we’ve done since Day 1, we continue to listen to the community about how best we continue to integrate into this neighborhood” she said in a statement. “Right now, we are focused on the ongoing work that’s occurring around the site.”
That work includes roadway and other infrastructure projects expected to be complete this year. The company will also welcome Arlington Community High School to its campus this fall, after decades of the school not having a permanent home.
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