Amazon AMZN aims to hire 150,000 seasonal employees before the busiest time of year for retailers. The e-commerce giant is offering lucrative incentives to lure talent amid a tight labor market and supply chain crunch. The average salary for seasonal jobs starts at $28 per hour with sign-on bonuses up to $3,000.
Despite lucrative incentives, the question is whether Amazon and other giant retailers can convince enough people to work for them amid a red hot labor market?
Competition for workers is fierce as giants such as Walmart WMT and Target TGT are also looking to hire an officer ahead of the holidays. Last week clothing retailer Nordstrom JWN announced plans to hire 28,000 seasonal and regular employees, offering extra incentives for those working in supply chain and fulfillment centers.
The economy added only 194,000 jobs last month, far below the 500,000 expected. In September, unemployment ticked lower to 4.8% percent. However, the drop comes along an unexpected decrease in the labor force participation.
Practically every industry is feeling the labor shortage squeeze as nearly 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs in August. Workers sought out affordable wages, opted for lifestyle changes or lacked higher childcare.
Salaries, working hours and location flexibility are paramount for employers to attract workers. For the most part, employees are on the driver's seat when it comes to their pick of jobs.
Amazon says the seasonal roles are in addition to previously announced plans to hire over 40,000 new corporate and tech jobs, and 125,000 part-time fulfillment and transportation jobs.
Shares of the e-commerce company are trading with fractionally higher price as of Monday mid-session. The stock is down almost 7% year-to-date.