Amazon to Hire 100,000 Employees in North America

E-commerce giant Amazon is reportedly set to hire 100,000 full and part-time employees in the U.S. and Canada, offering starting wages of at least $15 an hour.

Bloomberg reports that e-commerce giant Amazon is hiring 100,000 full and part-time employees in the U.S. and Canada with starting wages of $15 an hour. The new jobs include benefits and sign-on bonuses of as much as $1,000 in select cities and access to training programs within the company.

The new wave of hirings is in addition to the 33,000 corporate and technology hires that Amazon announced last week. Amazon plans to open 100 new operations buildings starting in September including fulfillment centers, delivery stations, sorting centers, and other sites according to the company.

Amazon has been adding jobs globally as its business and market valuation have soared during the coronavirus pandemic. The company increased its number of full and part-time employees by around 10 percent to 876,800 in the first six months of 2020 according to its July financial report. Earlier this month Amazon announced plans to add 7,000 permanent workers in the U.K. and has made more job announcements in Ireland and South Africa.

Amazon shares have surged by 70 percent this year, increasing its market value to $1.56 trillion as Amazon’s online shopping service became increasingly popular for many during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown.

However, Amazon has still received criticism for its treatment of workers. Recently, Amazon posted and quickly deleted a position for an analyst to research “labor organizing threats against the company”, calling the posting “inaccurate.” However, labor activists believe that the listing suggests Amazon is attempting to prevent workers from collective bargaining which drew attention earlier this year after employees protested working conditions which they believed put them at risk of catching the coronavirus.

Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos is currently the world’s wealthiest person. His personal wealth reached the $200 billion mark last month, the first person to ever reach that level of wealth.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com