Amazon is hoping to defy worker shortages with a renewed commitment to the UK by creating some 2,000 new jobs as part of a 55,000-strong global recruitment spree.
Its chief executive, Andy Jassy, who replaced Jeff Bezos in July, said Amazon would hire 40,000 corporate and technology roles in the US.
Another 9,000 new roles are being created in Europe, with Britain getting the biggest share despite having left the EU. The UK is one of Amazon’s largest markets outside the US, with revenues of £19.4bn last year.
Amazon’s hiring plans come despite a worker shortage in the developed world that has left companies struggling to fill vacant roles.
There are almost a million job vacancies in the UK as the reopening of the economy has left the hospitality and logistics industries hunting for staff, while many workers from eastern Europe have returned home during the pandemic.
The tech giant has been offering signing-on bonuses of £1,000 to new warehouse staff for roles that can be filled before September 18 to combat shortages.
Amazon said it would host a career day on September 16, where prospective staff can get a better idea about its jobs.
New roles will be available at corporate offices in London and Manchester, tech teams in Cambridge and Edinburgh, as well as data centre and warehouse roles.
As recently as May, Amazon said it was creating 10,000 additional UK jobs to bring its workforce to 55,000. Amazon said the “majority” of the positions announced on Wednesday were in addition to previous announcements.
Globally, Amazon said it would expand its total corporate workforce of about 275,000 by a fifth in the coming months.
Amazon has around 1.3m workers, making it one of the world’s largest private sector employers. Among the new technology roles will be jobs on its Starlink rival, Project Kuiper.
During the pandemic, it added hundreds of thousands of new staff to cope with demand for delivery services, including 450,000 in the US alone, with consumers stuck at home and ordering more packages.
While Amazon is hoping to return more workers to the office, it has pushed back its plans to January and staff will only be expected to initially return three days per week.
Separately, Google has pushed back its return to the office again to January 2022 after extending its voluntary work from home policy from October. It had already pushed back its phased return from June.
The search giant also said it would appeal a decision by France’s competition watchdog to hand out a €500m (£430m) fine in a row with newspapers over copyright rules.
