Amazon is going on a hiring spree, with raised pay waiting for new workers.
Amazon is currently the second largest private employer in the entire United States, rightfully so as they’re the largest online retailer in the entire world. Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, they were turning unprecedented profits, and the surge in online shopping that quarantine brought about only drove them further. Amazon has had to hire a lot more workers to keep up with the demand, both in their warehouses and to drive their branded Prime delivery trucks.
Amazon announced today that they’re looking to hire an additional 125,000 workers for both sectors, and in order to make the positions a little more appealing, they’ve decided to raise their hourly rates to $18 an hour, plus a $3,000 signing bonus in some regions. That’s a $1 increase over the previous hourly rate set back in May.
More jobs are going on the market as the United States gradually works its way back to normalcy from the pandemic, while more people are looking for work as enhanced unemployment benefits expire. Many people, however, have sworn off of entry-level, low-paying jobs due to feelings of mistreatment during the height of the pandemic, which is why companies have needed to offer better benefits to entice them back.
Amazon plans to hire another 125,000 employees, paying them an average of $18 per hour https://t.co/T2bKjanyry
— CNBC (@CNBC) September 14, 2021
“It’s a tight labor market, and we’ve seen some of that as the entire industry is seeing,” Dave Bozeman, vice president of Amazon Delivery Services, told Reuters.
“The 125,000 (warehouse workers) is really to help us keep up with our growth,” Bozeman added.
The 125,000 workers hired will account for both full-time and part-time positions, though Amazon has not yet offered a timeline for when all of these positions will be filled.