Amazon hiring 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers in the US as orders surge

Amazon said on Monday that it would be hiring 100,000 warehouse and delivery personnel in the US, as the Covid-19 outbreak in the country worsens and consumers turn to online shopping to get essentials. Noting that it had seen a “significant increase in demand” leading to “unprecedented” labor needs, the company specifically suggested that it was planning to recruit workers from the hard-hit hospitality, restaurants, and travel sectors, many of whom have seen their hours cut or been outright laid off.

Amazon has somewhere over 400,000 employees in the US during the holiday season, according to 2019 statistics. This means that the Covid-19 outbreak is forcing the company to increase its headcount by nearly 25 percent more than in peak periods. Furthermore, Amazon is also planning to raise employees’ hourly wages by $2 in local currency until the end of April. Employees across the US, UK, Europe, and Canada will receive this increase, although the company did not mention whether it would do the same in other parts of the world. The total cost of the wage hike, according to Monday’s statement, would be US$350 million.

The need for manpower is urgent, according to reports. Even as business skyrockets, Amazon itself is running out of stock for some essentials as its supply chain has been disrupted by lockdowns in China. Its delivery capacity has been unable to keep up with the volume of orders pouring in, especially as some of its own workers come down with Covid-19 or are quarantined.

And Amazon is not the only US retailer to ramp up hiring even as multiple other industries suffer from local or regional lockdowns, supply chain disruptions, and a sharp drop-off in consumer demand. Brick-and-mortar supermarket chains are hiring as well, partly to handle a spiking volume of online orders and partly to deal with increased foot traffic in their physical stores: much of which, in recent days, has had to do with panic buying as the virus pops up in more communities. Every single US state has by now reported at least one confirmed case, and panic buying has been erupting across the country for the last few days.