Amazon announced that it plans to hire more than 50,000 seasonal employees at its fulfillment centers across the U.S. during this holiday season.
As the retail market gears up for the holiday season, Amazon is aggressively hiring for the holiday shopping season and the newly hired will be placed in its stores and in other areas such as in distribution and fulfilling online orders.
"In addition to the thousands of people we've hired for full-time jobs this year, we're proud to be adding more than 50,000 seasonal jobs this holiday," said Dave Clark, vice president, Global Customer Fulfillment. "We're hiring at our sites across the U.S. for talented individuals to help us deliver a great experience for our customers this holiday season. Temporary associates play a critical role in meeting increased customer demand during the holiday season, and we expect thousands of temporary associates will stay on in full-time positions."
Retailers usually hire in large numbers weeks before the holiday shopping season. Wal-Mart Stores announced its plans to hire nearly 50,000 seasonal workers to be placed at its U.S. Walmart stores in September.
Macy's intends to hire 80,000 seasonal workers, an increase of 2.5 percent from last year, while Kohl's will increase its temporary holiday workforce by 10 percent from last year's 52,700 workers.
Target Corp also announced it will employee nearly 80,000 to 90,000 seasonal workers for its stores and distribution centers. Overall, the National Retail Federation estimates that the country's retailers alone will hire up to 625,000 temporary employees for the upcoming holidays, a jump from last year's 607,000 jobs.
Amazon employs more than 20,000 people across its 40 U.S. fulfillment centers. The company claims its permanent employees will get a payment 30 percent more than what traditional retail store employees earn and that many of its seasoned workers might end up joining the permanent Amazon workforce.
