Amazon.com, Inc, the US multinational technology company based in Seattle, Washington is all set to hire an additional staff of 100,000 people amidst the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic which has seen a record surge in its online sales.
The company said on Monday that the new hires will help pack, ship, or sort orders, working in part-time and full-time roles. It further clarified that these jobs are not related to their typical holiday hiring.
The biggest US online retail giant saw a record profit and revenue between April and June as online sales gained momentum and was further accelerated when people surged to stock groceries and supplies during the lockdown.
The company already had to hire 175,000 people earlier this year to keep up with the rush of orders, and announced further last week that it had 33,000 corporate and tech jobs it needed to fill. Amazon said that it needs the people at the 100 new warehouses, package sorting centers, and other facilities scheduled to open this month.
Alicia Boler Davis, who oversees Amazon’s warehouses, said the company is offering $1,000 sign-on bonuses in some cities where it is tough to find good staff, such as Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, Louisville, and Kentucky. The starting pay at Amazon is $15 an hour.
Much of the action is anticipated at Amazon’s warehouses’ in the coming holiday season. Amazon has ambitious plans to hold its busiest shopping days, Prime Day, in the fall this year after postponing it from July due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Last year, the company hired 200,000 ahead of the holiday season.
Amazon will be closely watching whether it needs to hire more workers for the holidays, but doesn’t have anything to announce yet, Boler Davis added.
As the economy is slowly picking up and markets opening, another company is already preparing for the spike in orders: UPS said last week that it plans to hire additional 100,000 people for the delivery of packages during the upcoming holiday season.
