Amazon hiring 100,000 workers amid COVID-19 online sales boom

Amazon plans to hire another 100,000 workers in the US and Canada amid a coronavirus-fueled boom in its online sales, the company announced Monday.

The e-commerce titan’s fourth big hiring spree this year will add full- and part-time jobs to its operations network “as we expand our footprint to better serve customers in communities where they live,” Amazon said in a blog post.

Many of the new employees will work at the 100 new operations buildings Amazon expects to open this month, including fulfillment centers, sorting centers, delivery stations and other sites, according to the company.

The jobs will pay starting wages of at least $15 an hour along with health and retirement benefits for full-time workers and a sign-on bonus of up to $1,000 in select cities, Amazon said, adding that hiring has already begun.

Amazon has significantly expanded its workforce this year as the COVID-19 pandemic led the Seattle-based company to record second-quarter profits thanks to locked-down consumers shifting their shopping online.

Amazon brought on 175,000 workers over two rounds of hiring in March and April to handle the surge in demand and later said 125,000 of them could stay on in long-term roles. The company will also hold a virtual job fair in six cities this week to hire more than 30,000 people by early next year.

With Post wires