Amazon Inc. announced last week about its rapid hiring plans in the US to add more than 100,000 jobs in different departments, right from software development to warehouse operations. This is the latest move by the e-commerce giant to win over shoppers by investing in faster-delivery time.
The company is investing heavily into new warehouses such that it can stock goods closer to customers and fulfil orders quickly in lesser time frame. The new hires to join the Amazon workforce from Texas, Florida to California will be the key driving force to fulfil company’s two-day shipping promise made to its members of the Amazon Prime shopping club. This will give the company, a winning-edge over its competition.
At least 16 new fulfilment centres are under works in the US for this year and the next. While the company declined to comment on which part of the U.S would see heavy recruitment activity, for fulfilment work or for corporate job roles, the company is fast expanding its population centers like those in Houston.
These new job opportunities are for people across the country and with all types of experience, education and skill levels—from engineers and software developers to those seeking entry-level positions and on-the-job training.
Many of the roles will be in new fulfilment centres that have been announced over the past several months and are currently under construction in Texas, California, Florida, New Jersey and many other states across the country.
Being one of the country’s biggest employers, Amazon plans to grow its full-time U.S.-based workforce from 180,000 in 2016 to over 280,000 by mid-2018. In addition to direct job creation, Amazon businesses like Marketplace and Amazon Flex will continue to create hundreds of thousands of jobs for people across the U.S. who want greater flexibility to start their own business, work part-time or set their own schedule.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder and CEO says, “We plan to add another 100,000 new Amazonians across the company over the next 18 months as we open new fulfillment centers, and continue to invent in areas like cloud technology, machine learning, and advanced logistics.”
Amazon already employs over 10,000 military veterans, and last year pledged to hire and train an additional 25,000 veterans and military spouses over the next five years. In addition, the company is committed to training 10,000 active duty service members, veterans and military spouses not employed by Amazon in cloud computing through AWS Educate.
See: Amazon Experiments with New Styles of Working to Lure Tech Talent
The online retail giant provides employees with highly-competitive pay, health insurance, disability insurance, retirement savings plans and company stock. The company also offers up to 20 weeks of paid leave and innovative benefits such as Leave Share and Ramp Back, which give new parents the flexibility with their growing families.
Leave Share lets employees share their Amazon paid leave with their spouse or domestic partner if their spouse’s employer doesn’t offer paid leave. Ramp Back gives new moms additional control over the pace at which they return to work. Just as with Amazon’s healthcare plan, these benefits are egalitarian – they’re the same for fulfillment centers and customer service employees as they are for Amazon’s most senior executives.
Amazon’s Career Choice program helps train employees for in-demand job roles within the company and other companies such that they can take full advantage of the nation’s innovation economy. The program pre-pays 95 percent of the tuition fee for courses in demand for high-wage fields, regardless of whether the skills are relevant for a future career at Amazon.
Over 9,000 employees have participated in Career Choice and more are signing up every day. Amazon created dedicated Career Choice classrooms at many fulfillment centers make it easier for local colleges to offer classes’ onsite. Amazon open-sourced the program and is reaching out to companies to help them copy and adopt their own Career Choice programs.
In addition to empowering employees to innovate and achieve their professional and personal dreams, Amazon offers a series of programs that empower people outside the company and create hundreds of thousands of additional jobs in the U.S.
Amazon’s Marketplace fuels 300,000 jobs in the U.S. for people who’ve started or are growing their own businesses by selling on Amazon. Last year alone, more than 100,000 sellers generated more than $100,000 each in sales.
Also read: Amazon to Create 1,000 New Permanent Positions in UK
