Amazon's warehouses will be staffed by less humans and more robots over the busy Christmas period, a leading analyst has claimed. The retail giant recruits thousands of additional employees every year to help meet the increased demand of the festive period. Amazon is only recruiting an additional 100,000 people for this year, down 20,000 from the two previous Christmases. Citi analyst Mark May told CNBC that this is likely a early sign of the increased automation at Amazon as it lessens its reliance on human employees. Amazon has endured several controversies surrounding working conditions in its fulfilment centres with claims of staff being forced to urinate into a bottle and employees not being paid after suffering serious injuries art work.

Amazon uses a mix of people and robots in its warehouses. The online retail giant announced Thursday that it plans to add 120,000 seasonal workers this holiday season. The jobs will be all across the U.S, with the company looking to bolster its fulfillment centers, sortation centers and customer service sites in advance of the yearly shopping madness. Last year the company added 100,000 holiday workers, of which over 14,000 became full-time employees, a number the company expects to grow this year. In a note sent out in September, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster estimated that 44% of the U.S. population now lives near an Amazon warehouse or delivery station.