Amazon said it will hire 250,000 workers in the U.S. in the coming weeks to ensure a robust workforce for the busy holiday shopping season.
The e-commerce giant is looking to fill part-time and full-time, and seasonal fulfillment centers and transportation roles across the nation, according to a blog post.
However, the company vowed to increase pay for logistics employees in particular, underscoring an effort to ramp up its same-day delivery network, especially for the critical shopping period.
In a year alone, UPS unveiled more than 50 new fulfillment centers, delivery stations, and same-day delivery sites across the nation.
To fill up those roles, Amazon said it's investing $1.3 billion this year toward pay increases for customer fulfillment and transportation employees, which the company says will boost the average pay for those roles to more than $20.50 per hour. Some stores will offer an average of as much as $28 per hour, Amazon said.
The announcement comes just after Target announced it was seeking to hire 100,000 seasonal team members for the season, which is in line with its hiring plans over the past two years.
Macy's announced today that it plans to hire around 40,000 workers to help with the holiday rush.
This year's holiday hiring is a result of a sluggish economy. Experts predict that retail sales growth may not be as robust this year due to fluctuations in inflation and pandemic-era savings.
Deloitte forecast retail sales to increase from 3.5% to 4.6%, with a total of $1.54 billion to $1.56 trillion during the November to January period.
Retail sales - Seasonally adjusted and excluding automobile and gasoline - grew 7.6% last year, according to the Census Bureau, a 17.3 percent increase year-on-year.