Amazon hiring 100,000 new employees in US and Canada

Amazon.com Inc. is hiring 100,000 full and part-time employees across the U.S. and Canada, offering starting wages of at least $15 an hour, the latest announcement in the Seattle-based e-commerce giant’s hiring spree.

The new jobs include benefits and sign-on bonuses of as much as $1,000 in select cities and access to training programs, the company said in a statement on Monday. This is in addition to the 33,000 corporate and technology employees the Seattle-based e-commerce giant announced last week, it said.

Amazon also plans to open 100 new operations buildings in September across fulfillment centers, delivery stations, sorting centers and other sites, the company said the statement.

Amazon has been adding jobs globally as its business and market valuation have soared, increasing numbers of full and part time employees by about 10% to 876,800 in the first six months of 2020, according to its July financial report. Earlier this month, the company announced plans to add 7,000 permanent workers in the U.K. and has made similar announcements in Ireland and South Africa.

Its shares have surged almost 70% this year, lifting its market value to $1.56 trillion, as the company’s online shopping services became vital to many households under lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Still, the company has attracted criticism for how it’s treated workers. The company posted and then abruptly deleted a position for an analyst to research “labor organizing threats against the company” calling it “inaccurate.” However, labor activists said the listing suggests Amazon is trying to prevent workers from collective bargaining, which drew attention earlier in the year after some employees protested conditions in warehouses that they said put them at risk of catching the coronavirus.

Amazon said in July it had spent $4 billion in the second quarter on Covid-19-related initiatives to keep employees safe and provide them with additional compensation.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos is the world’s wealthiest person, with a net worth of about $184 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.