Amazon to recruit 55,000 staff for expansion drive

Amazon is looking to hire 55,000 staff globally for corporate jobs and roles in robotics, research and engineering.

About 40,000 jobs will be in the US, with 2,500 in the UK and the remainder mostly in India, Germany and Japan.

Chief executive Andy Jassy said Amazon needed more staff to keep pace with expansion of its retail, cloud computing and advertising arms.

"Amazon continues to grow quickly, and relentlessly invent across many areas," he said in a statement.

A large number of the posts are likely to be for the company's new satellite launch programme - Project Kuiper - to widen broadband access.

Amazon said it has already recruited 10,000 people in the UK this year, bringing the workforce to 55,000. More details of the recruitment drive are expected ahead of a planned global Amazon Career Day jobs fair starting on 15 September.

News of the global hiring was first disclosed in an interview Mr Jassy gave with Reuters, one of the first he has given to the media since since taking over from Jeff Bezos this year.

"There are so many jobs during the pandemic that have been displaced or have been altered, and there are so many people who are thinking about different and new jobs," Mr Jassy told the news agency.

Amazon, the second largest employer in the US, has about 275,000 tech and corporate staff globally. The company has been expanding its warehouse and distribution operation rapidly.

The latest recruitment drive comes as companies in the US, and also the UK, report growing problems filling skilled roles. Amazon has offered a signing-on bonus to fill some roles.

It also comes amid increased scrutiny of Amazon's working practices from unions and pressure groups.

In Alabama earlier this year there was a failed attempt by some warehouse workers to form a union, prompting Mr Jassy to say Amazon needed a better "vision" for employees.

Asked by Reuters if he might change Amazon's reputation as a demanding place to work, Mr Jassy said: "Everybody at the company has the freedom - and really, the expectation - to critically look at how it can be better and then invent ways to make it better."

Separately, US supermarket chain Walmart said it was hiring 20,000 new warehouse workers ahead of the holiday season.

The firm, which offered some warehouse workers $1,000 retention bonuses this summer due to a staff shortage, said the jobs would be permanent positions.