Amazon has announced plans to create a further 125,000 jobs in fulfillment and transportation across the USA.
Roles will be located in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Washington. This is on top of the 40,000 new corporate and technology jobs at 220-plus locations announced earlier this month.
These jobs come alongside approximately 250 new fulfillment centers, sortation centers, regional air hubs, and delivery stations, with 100 of these buildings coming in September alone.
With an average starting pay of more than US$18 per hour, which is up to US$22.50 per hour in some locations, Neil Saunders, managing director, retail, for analystics company GlobalData, notes that these “efforts will be welcomed by job seekers across America – especially in more rural locations”.
In addition to advancing new centers and individual careers for its operations, Amazon is also investing the growth of small and medium-size businesses. Amazon works with more than 2,500 Delivery Service Partners, enabling these aspiring entrepreneurs to build their own delivery companies by leveraging Amazon’s experience in operations and logistics. These partners plan to hire more than 50,000 delivery associates by the end of the year.
Most notable among these delivery associates is Deliveroo, which announced on September 15 its partnership with Amazon Prime. Under this new partnership, all UK and Ireland Amazon Prime members will be able to receive free Deliveroo Plus membership for a year, giving them unlimited free delivery at all Deliveroo’s 50,000 restaurants on orders over £25 (US$34.59). This scheme is designed to increase the retention and loyalty of Deliveroo’s existing 3.9 million monthly users and entice a portion of Amazon’s 200 million members around the world.