An employee looks for items in one of the corridors at an Amazon warehouse.
Carlos Jasso | Reuters
Amazon has announced that it expects to create 10,000 new permanent jobs in the U.K. this year, bringing the company’s total headcount in the country to more than 40,000.
The vast majority of the roles are likely to be based in Amazon warehouses.
The Seattle-headquartered e-commerce giant said Thursday it had already added 3,000 new permanent staff to its warehouses, sorting centers and delivery stations this year. It said it will add a further 7,000 roles by the end of the year across more than 50 U.K. sites including corporate offices and two new warehouses that are due to open in the coming months in the North East and in the Midlands.
Roles include engineers, health and safety specialists, as well as groups of people who pick, pack and ship products to Amazon’s customers.
The company said many of the people that it has offered temporary roles to during the pandemic will be able to transition to permanent roles.
Stefano Perego, Amazon’s vice president of European customer fulfillment, said in a statement: “The new roles will help us continue to meet customer demand and support small and medium sized businesses selling on Amazon.”
He added: “We are employing thousands of talented individuals in a diverse range of good jobs from operations managers and tech professionals through to people to handle customer orders.”
Business Secretary Alok Sharma said in a statement that Amazon’s recruitment plan “is a clear vote of confidence in the UK economy as we build back better from the pandemic.”
Amazon is also planning to recruit an additional 20,000 people in temporary roles to help it deal with demand in the lead up to Christmas.
“We prepare year-round for the festive season and we’re also excited to have over 20,000 seasonal positions available this year to help delight our customers,” said Perego.
Last month, Amazon announced that it is planning to create 3,500 new tech and corporate jobs across six major U.S. cities.
Amazon has more than 876,000 employees worldwide, with 600,000 staff added to the company since 2010.
However, Amazon has also had a number of notable departures this year.
Three out of roughly 20 “distinguished engineers” have left the company in 2020, with Brad Porter, Amazon’s head of robotics, quitting most recently. Paul Viola, who led the science side of Amazon’s Prime Air division, and Peter Vosshall, who worked on Amazon Web Services, left earlier in the year.
It’s unclear if there is a connection between the departures and none responded to CNBC’s request for comment. Amazon also did not comment when asked about these departures.
