|
The
world's biggest online retailer said the positions are for full
and part-time work in its home country and Canada, and these
will include roles at 100 new warehouse and operations sites it
is opening this month. The Seattle-based company employed
876,800 people as of June 30, excluding contractors and
temporary personnel.
The news reflects Amazon's constant need for labor to pick, pack
and ship products to shoppers' doorsteps, with a 40% revenue
rise last quarter and the biggest profit in the retailer's
26-year-history. It is rolling out automation at its newest
buildings at the same time, said Alicia Boler Davis, Amazon's
vice president of global customer fulfillment.
"We will continue to deploy technology where appropriate,
starting from a safety perspective" and "where we can improve
our overall operation," Boler Davis said in an interview.
She did not have comment on whether automation means fewer jobs
per warehouse but said Amazon uses its systems for collaboration
with people. "We don’t look at it as an 'either/or.'"
Boler Davis, recently appointed to Amazon's senior leadership
team, said the company is still evaluating seasonal employment
needs for the winter holiday, apart from the 100,000 positions
it is filling.
Earlier this month Amazon announced 33,000 openings for
corporate and technology workers. It announced 100,000 and
75,000 new operations jobs in March and April, respectively, in
an appeal to people who were laid off by other businesses during
the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; Editing by
Cynthia Osterman)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
