Dubai: In anticipation of the holiday buying rush, when most consumers around the world stock up on merchandise and gifts for their loved ones, a giant e-commerce retailer has announced that it is hiring thousands of employees.
Amazon.com confirmed on Tuesday that it is on a hiring spree as it looks to add 100,000 new staff to its workforce. The additional manpower will fill seasonal positions, as the company anticipates an increase in customer demand during the holiday season.
In many markets around the world, particularly in the United States, consumers tend to loosen their purse strings during the gift-buying period, which runs between November and December.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) in the US has recently predicted that sales during the two months, excluding automobile, gas and restaurant sales, are expected to jump by 3.7 per cent to $630.5 billion. The anticipated increase is much higher than the 10-year average of 2.5 per cent.
"Holiday sales in 2015 are expected to represent approximately 19 per cent of the retail industry's annual sales of $3.2 trillion," NRF said in a press release.
Consumer holiday spending has been rising every year since 2010. According to NRF estimates, festive shoppers last year splurged $802, on average, on gifts, decorations, food and other items, up from $767 spent a year earlier.
Since August, Amazon.com has already hired 25,000 regular full-time workers across the United States.
“We’re looking forward to adding 100,000 seasonal employees for the upcoming holiday season,” said Mike Roth, Amazon vice president of North America operations, in a press statement seen by Gulf News.
“Following last year’s holiday season, tens of thousands of seasonal employees found regular, full-time roles with Amazon. We’re excited to grow our team by finding great talent through our seasonal hiring efforts in addition to creating new full-time jobs that offer comprehensive benefits starting on day one.”
Amazon employs more than 90,000 full-time workers across its more than 50 fulfillment centres and 20 sortation centres in the US.
For its regular, full-time positions, Amazon says it offers competitive wages and comprehensive benefits, including healthcare, 401(k) with 50 percent match, stock and bonuses.
Throughout the year on average, nearly 90 percent of associates across the company’s US fulfillment network are regular, full-time employees.
Amazon also offers regular, full-time employees innovative programs like Career Choice, where it will pre-pay 95 percent of tuition for courses related to in-demand fields, regardless of whether the skills are relevant to a career at the company.
