Amazon AMZN said Monday it plans to hire 150,000 workers heading into the holiday season, with wages as high as $21 an hour, amid one of the biggest labor shortages in U.S. history.
Amazon announced it would offer seasonal hires an average of $18 U.S. per hour to start, with some shifts getting an additional $3 per hour. Sign-on bonuses of up to $3,000 are also on the table, Amazon said, with the bulk of the new roles based in Arizona, California, Colorado and Florida.
We are proud to offer a huge range of full time, part-time and now seasonal jobs with great pay and benefits, said Alicia Boler Davis, senior vice president, Global Customer Fulfillment. Our full-time employment helps us deliver on our promises to customers while also providing flexibility to our seasonal employees during busy periods. Joining Amazon in one of our seasonal roles offers high-paying part-time work, or a path to a full-time position, with benefits like our Career Choice program to help people advance their education and careers within Amazon or beyond, she added.
Amazon shares were lower in early Monday trading to change hands at $3,431, marking 0.64 per cent lower than the previous day. The head count expansion, however, comes amid one of the worst labour shortages on record, with unfilled positions around the U.S. valued at 10.4 million in August, down from a record 11.1 million at the beginning of the summer.
In fact, around 4.3 million people left their jobs in the final months of the summer, even in the face of expiring unemployment benefits, underscoring the challenges employers face in a tight labour market heading into crucial holiday season.
However, the benefits expiration and rising vaccination rates coupled with increased wages and better job offers failed to tempt Americans back into the job market, with 429,000 net new positions created over the past two months, easily the slowest gains for the year, although the BLS has noted that Pandemic-related staffing fluctuations in public and private education have distorted normal seasonal hiring and layoff patterns.
What said, average hourly earnings rose 4.6 per cent from last year to $30.85, as blue-chip companies like Amazon and Walmart ramp up hiring plans heading into the holiday season.
Amazon will publish its first quarter earnings on Oct. 28 to follow its third income loss in three years in the second quarter and a 27 per cent increase in operating expenses tied to COVID costs and rising wages.
Amazon says it sees operating income of between $3.5 billion to $6 billion on revenues in the range of $106 billion to $112 billion, compared with Refinitiv forecast of $118.9 billion for three months ending September 30 - 31.