Amazon is looking to take on 100,000 regular full-time and part-time workers across the U.S. and Canada, the company said on Monday, September 14.
The announcement follows a recruitment drive earlier in the year that saw a total of 175,000 new workers join its ranks.
The hiring spree has been propelled by the coronavirus pandemic after stay-at-home orders and health concerns prompted more people to switch to online shopping for everyday items.
In a blog post on its website announcing the call for new staff, Amazon said some of the workers would be deployed at 100 newly opened operations buildings that include fulfillment centers, delivery stations, and sortation centers, among other sites.
The new roles offer a starting wage of at least $15 per hour, while in some cities the company is offering a sign-on bonus of up to $1,000. New recruits will also receive health, vision, and dental insurance from day one, 401(k) with 50% company match, up to 20 weeks paid parental leave, and the company’s Career Choice program that pre-pays 95% of tuition for courses in high-demand fields.
Anyone interested in getting involved in the company’s gargantuan shipping operation can find out more by heading to Amazon’s website.
The company is also holding an online career day on September 16 as part of efforts to take on 33,000 people for corporate and tech roles paying an average of $150,000.
Scrutiny
While many brick-and-mortar retailers have been feeling the heat as shoppers concerned about the virus stay away, Amazon has been grappling with a very different set of problems, namely keeping up with record demand for online shopping deliveries during a pandemic.
When COVID-19 started to take hold in the U.S. earlier in the year, the company came under increasing scrutiny regarding its efforts to protect its warehouse workers from catching the virus.
Some workers complained of inadequate safety measures despite Amazon’s insistence that it was taking appropriate action to protect its workforce. At least nine Amazon warehouse workers are known to have died from the virus, though it’s not clear how they contracted it. Many more have come down with symptoms.
Amazon has more than a million full-time and part-time workers globally, with some 800,000 of them located in the U.S. While the latest hires will be offered permanent positions, it’s not yet clear if Amazon will also be taking on additional staff for the approaching holiday season.
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