Amazon to Hire 100,000 Seasonal Workers for Holidays -- Update
October 27 2020 - 11:07AM
Dow Jones News
By Dave Sebastian
Amazon.com Inc. plans to hire 100,000 seasonal workers heading
into the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays as customers are
expected to continue shopping online during the Covid-19
pandemic.
The e-commerce giant on Tuesday said the seasonal workers would
pack and deliver items, among other roles, during the holiday
shopping rush. The additions build on the company's hiring spree
this year to meet soaring demand during the pandemic, even as
companies across a range of industries have cut their workforce and
filed for bankruptcy.
The Seattle-based company also said it has promoted more than
35,000 operations employees, including fulfillment-center workers,
across North America this year. Amazon said it pays its workers at
least $15 an hour.
Last month, the company said it would hire 100,000 additional
warehouse employees in the U.S. and Canada. Excluding seasonal
workers, Amazon's world-wide workforce will be roughly one million
after accounting for the 100,000 additional positions and 33,000
positions it is hiring for in its corporate divisions. The company
will have more than 700,000 employees in the U.S. once those
positions are filled.
Amazon has experienced a wave of orders this year as Covid-19
restrictions pushed more people toward online shopping. The company
postponed its annual Prime Day sales event, which propelled
consumers to spend billions of dollars online earlier this month,
after struggling to meet a surge in online ordering at the outset
of the pandemic. The event was also marked by activism around the
country, including an online petition targeting Amazon's
productivity expectations for warehouse workers.
Retailers like Walmart Inc. and Target Corp., as well as
e-commerce companies such as Instacart Inc., have also seen immense
growth online and hired hundreds of thousands of workers.
Bricks-and-mortar retailers have booked some growth through their
digital sales as their stores experienced Covid-19 disruptions.
Some retailers plan to close stores on Thanksgiving and are
offering Black Friday deals online during November and December to
reduce crowds.
Amazon, which accounts for more than a third of online sales in
the U.S., has recorded record profits during the pandemic. The
company posted a record $88.91 billion in sales during its second
quarter, and profit doubled to $5.24 billion from the same period
last year.
The company will report third-quarter results on Thursday.
Analysts polled by FactSet expect Amazon to post a profit of $3.84
billion on sales of $92.78 billion for the period.
Write to Dave Sebastian at dave.sebastian@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 27, 2020 10:52 ET (14:52 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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