Amazon is going on another hiring spree. The company said Wednesday that it plans to hire 55,000 people around the world, with about 40,000 of those roles in the US, the AP reports. Amazon said all the open roles are for tech jobs and corporate positions. Separately, the company has been hiring thousands of warehouse workers to pack and ship online orders. While other companies laid off workers during the pandemic, Amazon's workforce ballooned as more people stayed home and ordered toilet paper and groceries from the shopping site. Last year alone, it hired 500,000 people. The Seattle-based company said the open US jobs are spread across 220 Amazon locations around the country.
Amazon currently employs more than 1.3 million worldwide, making it the second-largest private US employer after retail rival Walmart, which is also ramping up hiring. The company said Wednesday it planned to hire 20,000 people at its Walmart and Sam's Club warehouses to fill online orders. Like Walmart before it, Amazon continues to face pressure on how it treats its workers. A union push at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama failed earlier this year, but other unions and advocates still have the company in its sights. Amazon said Wednesday the large number of job openings is due to its growing businesses, including its cloud computing unit and its project to send satellites into space to beam Internet service to earth.
In his first interview since becoming Amazon CEO in July, Andy Jassy told Reuters that the hires will expand Amazon's tech and corporate staff by around 20%, and the company believes now is a good time for recruiting. "There are so many jobs during the pandemic that have been displaced or have been altered, and there are so many people who are thinking about different and new jobs," he said. (More Amazon stories.)
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