Amazon is planning to hire about 55,000 people globally in the coming months for corporate and tech roles, as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to drive growth in cloud computing and online retail.
The company says it will hold its annual job fair, dubbed ‘Career Day’, on 15 September, to support all job seekers, whether ‘they are looking for a new job or hoping to transition to a different career altogether’.
Amazon has hired over 450,000 people in the US since the beginning of the pandemic, and it now employs almost one million US workers.
“We’re working hard every day to be the best place for people to have satisfying and fulfilling long-term careers,” said Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.
“Amazon continues to grow quickly and relentlessly invent across many areas, and we’re hoping that Career Day gives both job seekers and current Amazon employees the support they need to learn new skills or reimagine their careers at Amazon or elsewhere.”
In his first press interview since becoming Amazon CEO in July, Jassy said that firm needs more firepower to match increasing demand in the cloud, retail and advertising, among other businesses.
He added that Project Kuiper that aims to launch hundreds of satellites into orbit to widen broadband access would also require new hires.
Amazon is planning to add 40,000 jobs in the US, while 2,500 roles will be created in the UK. The rest of the jobs will go to India, Japan and Germany.
The new recruitment will help expand retailer’s corporate and tech staff (currently around 275,000 worldwide) by 20 per cent.
In the UK, Amazon will hire staff for its offices in London and Manchester, and for ‘tech hubs’ in Edinburgh and Cambridge. The e-commerce giant is also seeking to hire more people across its network of UK fulfilment centres, amid growing demand for online shopping during the pandemic.
Jassy told Reuters that Amazon has been “very competitive on the compensation side” and has “led the way in the $15 minimum wage”.
And while that may be true, the fact is that Amazon has faced a heightened scrutiny in recent years over its labour practices.
Earlier this year, a failed effort by some staff in Bessemer facility, Alabama, to organise displayed Amazon’s aggressive attitude against unions.
While the unionisation effort was defeated by a 2-1 margin, RWDSU – the group which sought to represent Bessemer workers – filed a legal challenge, alleging that the management had used unfair labour practices to discourage workers from unionising.
Earlier in February, RWDSU alleged that the management was sending text messages to workers at the Bessemer warehouse and asking them to attend anti-union meetings, despite the company’s own social distancing policy.
The unionisation drive sparked huge political interest in the US, with President Joe Biden stating in a video message that every employee should have a fair choice to join a union, and that no employer should be allowed to take that choice from workers.
Biden also said that there should be no threats, intimidation, coercion or anti-union propaganda from employers, and that no manager should confront workers about their union preferences.
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