What downturn? Amazon to hire 33,000 US staff

In the latest sign of how it is prospering while others are faltering during the pandemic, Amazon is seeking to bring aboard 33,000 people for corporate and tech roles in the next few months.

It is the largest number of job openings it has had at one time, and the Seattle-based online behemoth said the hiring is not related to the jobs it typically offers ahead of the busy holiday shopping season.

Amazon can afford to grow its workforce: It is one of the few companies that has thrived during the coronavirus outbreak. People have turned to it to order groceries, supplies and other items online, helping the company bring in record revenue and profits between April and June.

That came even though it had to spend $US4 billion ($5.5b) on cleaning supplies and to pay workers overtime and bonuses.

Demand has been so high, Amazon has struggled to deliver items as fast as it normally does and had to hire 175,000 more people to help pack and ship orders in its warehouses. Walmart and Target have also seen sales soar during the pandemic.

But other US retailers have had a rougher time. J.C. Penney, J.Crew and Brooks Brothers have all gone bankrupt. And Lord & Taylor, which has been in business for nearly 200 years, recently said it will be closing its stores for good.

Companies across other industries have announced buyouts or layoffs, including Coca-Cola and American Airlines.

In August, the US unemployment rate fell to 8.4 per cent from 10.2 per cent the month before, but hiring growth slowed, with the country adding 1.4 million jobs last month compared to 1.7 million in July.

Others are hiring, too. UPS said Wednesday that it plans to bring in 100,000 people to help it deliver packages during the busy holiday season, which is about the same amount of people it hired last year.

Amazon said its corporate and tech jobs, whose average pay is $US150,000 a year, will be centred around Amazon’s offices across the country, including Denver, New York, Phoenix and its hometown of Seattle. The new hires will work from home at first, but the company said it does want employees to return to the office eventually.

Ardine Williams, Amazon’s vice-president of workforce development, said plans to build a second headquarters near Washington, D.C., are going as planned, despite the pandemic, with 1000 workers already hired.

To fill the 33,000 jobs, Amazon said will hold an online career fair September 16 to collect resumes and give people a chance talk to a recruiter. Those not interested in a job at Amazon can also get resume help, the company said.

Jane Oates, president of the non-profit WorkingNation and a former assistant secretary at the US Department of Labour, said that Amazon is different from other companies in that it is thinking about its future workforce. For example, it announced a program last year to retrain 100,000 of its workers for tech jobs by 2025.

“They’re not only looking for the jobs that need to be done today, they’re also looking at what’s next,” she said.

At an in-person Amazon career fair last year, about 17,000 people showed up and the company said it received more than 200,000 applications for 30,000 jobs.

In July, the company said its workforce topped one million worldwide for the first time, making it the second-biggest US-based private employer behind Walmart.

AP