E-commerce giant Amazon plans to offer full-time jobs to around 70 per cent of 1,75,000 temporary workforce in the US that the company had hired to meet the surge in demand during coronavirus caused COVID-19 pandemic, the company said in a blogpost on Thursday.
The company will begin telling 1,25,000 employees in June that they can continue working in their roles for longer term.
“As the long-term picture becomes more clear, we’re providing the opportunity for 125,000 of those who came on with us seasonally to stay with Amazon and transition into a regular, full-time role beginning in June,” Amazon said.
This announcement is a sign that Amazon sales have jumped drastically that justifies the hiring of employees at such a scale, especially at a time when other companies are cutting jobs.
In March, the eCommerce giant announced the hiring of 175,000 roles across its operations network to help provide for the communities and keep as many people as possible working during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Like other companies, we hired these individuals for seasonal roles to meet a surge in demand and, for many, there was the hope of returning back to their previous companies once states began to re-open,” Amazon said in a statement on Thursday.
The company, however, did not disclose how much it was spending to make these jobs permanent.
Normally, Amazon pays at least $15 an hour to its 600,000-strong workforce.
Regular, full-time roles at Amazon come with a comprehensive benefits package starting on day one, a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour, and access to training programmes like Career Choice that make it easier to springboard into a different career at Amazon or other companies.
“We hope the option for so many people to stay on long-term at Amazon will help alleviate some of the ongoing burden of unemployment in communities across the US as we all work together to fight through this crisis,” said the company.
Amazon earlier announced to invest nearly $4 billion to keep its workers safe.