Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Rebecca Speare-Cole

Amazon to hire 100,000 people to keep up with surge in orders amid coronavirus shutdowns

File photo of Amazon parcels (Picture: REUTERS)

Amazon has announced that it is seeking to hire 100,000 people across the US to keep up with a surge in orders due to the global spread of coronavirus.

The retail giant has seen online shopping soar as more people have started to self-isolate at home and rely on online deliveries.

The company will also temporarily raise pay by $2 an hour through to the end of April for hourly employees.

This includes workers at its warehouses, delivery centres and Whole Foods grocery stores, all of whom make at least $15 an hour.

Employees in the UK and other European countries will get a similar raise.

"We are seeing a significant increase in demand, which means our labour needs are unprecedented for this time of year," said Dave Clark, who oversees Amazon's warehouse and delivery network.

Amazon said this weekend that a surge of orders is putting its operations under pressure.

It warned shoppers that it could take longer than the usual two days to get packages.

In the UK, Amazon Prime deliveries on Monday said they would arrive by Thursday.

Amazon also said it was sold out of many household cleaning supplies and is working to get more in stock.

The Seattle-based company said the job openings are for a mix of full-time and part-time positions and include delivery drivers and warehouse workers, who pack and ship orders to shoppers.

Amazon is already the second-largest U.S.-based employer behind Walmart, with nearly 800,000 workers worldwide.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.