AMZN Amazon.com Inc

By Dave Sebastian

Amazon.com Inc. said it plans to add 10,000 workers in Bellevue, Wash., as the e-commerce giant expands its footprint in various cities and shoppers inundate the company's site with orders amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Seattle company's move on Friday followed its plan on Thursday to add 10,000 permanent new jobs in the U.K. this year, hiring engineers, human-resources, health and safety, finance and other professionals. Amazon on Friday didn't specify the roles it is hiring for in Bellevue.

The tech giant in February said it was planning to hire 15,000 people in Bellevue, and Friday's plan would add to that headcount. Amazon, whose profit for the June quarter doubled to a record $5.2 billion, employed nearly 800,000 full and part-time employees as of the end of last year, according to its annual securities filing.

With the hiring, Amazon is also expanding its office presence, as other companies embrace lasting remote unemployment. Amazon said it has secured an additional two million square feet of office space in downtown Bellevue, and it will start the second phase of the building of its 27-story office tower in coming weeks. The company last month said it was expanding its physical offices in six U.S. cities and adding thousands of corporate jobs in those areas.

U.S. employers added 1.4 million jobs in August, and the unemployment rate fell to 8.4%, the Labor Department reported Friday, as the economy continued to rebound from the pandemic.

Amazon on Friday also said it is giving a $1 million grant to the City of Bellevue's Human Services Fund, to be distributed to more than 40 entities.

Write to Dave Sebastian at dave.sebastian@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 04, 2020 10:56 ET (14:56 GMT)

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