Amazon Gears Up for Hiring Spree, Looks To Fill 30,000 Well-Paying Jobs in 6 Cities
Amazon wants to find 30,000 people to hire and is holding six job fairs Sept. 17 as a first step to filling its vacancies.
The jobs, which vary by region, start at $15-an-hour positions in warehouses to ship orders and go all the way up the ladder to software positions that can pay more than $100,000 a year.
The openings are the most Amazon has ever had at one time, The New York Times reported.
The job fairs will be held in Arlington, Virginia; Boston; Chicago; Dallas; Nashville, Tennessee; and Seattle, CBS News reported.
Amazon created a link for its Career Day that answers some basic questions about working with the retail giant. Each location also has a web page with some basic information and a timetable to explain what takes place and when. Each event opens at 11:30 a.m. local time and ends at 7 p.m.
These full-time positions are separate from the annual seasonal spree of hiring that takes place as Amazon gears up for the holiday retail season.
“I encourage anyone willing to think big and move fast to apply for a job with us,” Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos said in a statement. “You’ll get to invent and see Amazon making even bolder bets on behalf of our customers.”
Amazon, with 650,000 workers, is second only to Walmart in the ranks of top private employers in the U.S., according to CBS News.
With the nation’s unemployment rate at 3.7 percent, employers in all sectors of the economy are feeling the squeeze to attract workers.
This summer, Amazon responded to the tight labor market by announcing that it would invest $700 million to train about 1,000 current employees for better-paying jobs, particularly in the technology area.
News of Amazon’s search for permanent, full-time workers came on the same day United Parcel Service announced it will hire 100,000 seasonal workers to deal with the holiday onslaught of packages.
Danelle McCusker, the head of U.S. human resources, told The Associated Press that UPS is paying workers more this year. Last year, seasonal workers were paid $10.10 per hour. This year, the minimum for seasonal hires is $14 per hour, with truck drivers getting $30 an hour, she said.
“Some markets are a bit more competitive, and we will adjust” wages higher and even offer bonuses of $100 to $250, McCusker said.
UPS and Amazon are not alone in seeking employees, according to Forbes.
Jason Wachtel, founder and managing partner of JW Michaels & Co., a nationwide executive search firm, said openings outpace the supply of people to fill them.
“We are working on a large number of searches across all business sectors. There are not enough candidates to keep up with the demand,” he said.
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