Amazon is to create 4,000 new permanent jobs this year, taking its UK total up to 75,000 and make it one of the country's biggest private sector employers.
It says that it will take the number of jobs created by the e-commerce and computer services giant in the UK over the past three years to 40,000, at a cost of £1 billion. The 4,000 jobs being created by Amazon will be distributed around the country and throughout its businesses.
They will include the new warehouses that it is opening in Wakefield and Knowsley, as well as its sorting centres, delivery stations and Amazon’s Fresh Stores, which use technology to enable people to buy food and other household items without scanning or having to pay at a till.
They rest of the jobs will include corporate roles and specialisms at its cloud computing business Amazon Web Services (AWS). The AWS jobs being created include software development, product management, and engineering.
AWS controls a third of the cloud computing market and is effectively the backbone of the modern internet, providing businesses and organisations with storage, servers, remote access computing, networking, email and security. Its services are used by governments and businesses worldwide.
“We’re continuing to invest in talent right across the UK, from apprentices in Swansea to data scientists in Edinburgh,” Amazon UK country manager John Boumphrey said.
Laurence Turner, head of research and policy at the GMB union, said that while the creation of new jobs is welcome, Amazon needs to address the health and safety problems at its warehouses.
According to the union’s research, more than a thousand serious injuries have been reported at Amazon sites since 2016 and Turner said: “There are hundreds of ambulance call outs to Amazon sites every year - it’s no wonder that Amazon is worried about running out of workers. Expansion isn't enough, Amazon must meet with GMB and agree the changes needed to make its fulfilment centres safe places to work.”
Depending on the location and role, Amazon pays a minimum of £10 and £11.10 and offers staff pensions, private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection and an employee discount. It also offers workers the chance to learn new skills and qualifications, from HR to accountancy to driving HGVs.
Aside from the jobs it has directly created, Amazon says that its UK operations support 85,000 small and medium-sized businesses that sell goods and services through it. Those SMEs support 250,000 jobs and more than 160,000 in its supply chain.
