Online retail giant Amazon is offering new recruits at their warehouses a £1,000 joining bonus in an attempt to attract staff.
The group is advertising for “urgently needed” warehouse pickers and packers across the UK to help meet the booming demand for online shopping.
Job ads on the Indeed website reveal it is offering to pay up to £1,000 as a starting bonus for a variety of roles, plus an hourly rate of as much as £11.10 an hour, rising to £22.20 an hour for overtime.
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The announcement comes as UK firms are struggling to fill roles across a range of industries due to issues caused by Brexit, Covid-19 self-isolation, and millions still on the furlough workers’ support scheme.
The recruitment woes are causing crippling shortages of lorry drivers, while hospitality firms have also struggled to fill roles on reopening after lockdown.
Official data last month showed that 953,000 vacancies were distributed in the three months to the end of June, with vacancies passing one million for the first time ever in July.
The roles up for grabs at Amazon span warehouses across the UK, including Darlington, Dartford, Swansea, Redditch and Coventry.
Applicants who are taken on between now and September 18 are eligible for the £1,000 bonus.
According to the job ads, Amazon is offering “immediate starts with no experience needed” for many of the warehouse roles.
Amazon is one among other companies offering a hiring bonus to attract workers- Tesco and Asda are offering lorry drivers £1,000 on sign up.
