Amazon announced plans to hire 250,000 workers across the U.S. fulfillment and transportation networks for the holiday season, a new record total for the company.
This large-scale hiring effort includes full-time, part-time and seasonal roles that are intended to manage the projected upswing in holiday e-commerce orders.
The announcement was made amid rising concerns that U.S. shoppers will be prudent in this holiday season as they face ongoing impact of current economic conditions, including the impact of existing trade and tariff policies.
However, data firm Adobe Analytics last week projected U.S. holiday online sales growth to be modest this year, though it is still expected that e-commerce will outpace overall retail sales growth.
Amazon has hired full-time and part-time employees at an average starting wage $23 per hour with benefits while seasonal workers will earn an average typical compensation of over $19 per hour.
The company last month declared that it was investing more than $1 billion to increase pay and medical cost reduction for U.S. fulfillment and transportation employees.
The significant step of Amazon to hire 250,000 workers for the holiday season is to show confidence in continued e-commerce demand despite overarching patterns of cautious holiday hiring across the retail sector.
