Amazon To Hire 55,000 People Under New CEO

Amazon’s new CEO, Andy Jassey, has announced plans to hire 55,000 people for corporate and technology roles in the coming months.

Jassey, who took over the position of CEO from Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos in June, had previously said that the company needed more firepower to keep up with the high demand in retail, cloud and advertising, etc.

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According to a report by Reuters, Jassey said Amazon’s new bet is to launch satellites into orbit to help widen broadband access.

The new employees will make up a 20% increase in Amazon’s tech and corporate staff, who are currently 275,000 globally, the company disclosed.

“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,” he said.

With Amazon’s annual job fair scheduled to begin September 15, Jassy hopes that now is the good time for recruiting.

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“It’s part of what makes career day so timely and so useful,” he said.

The positions Amazon is marketing include engineering, research science and robotics roles, postings that are largely new to the company rather than jobs others quit.

This move by Amazon to hire a large number of people follows a period of scrutiny and criticism of its labour practices and opposition by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Earlier this year, working conditions at Amazon’s warehouses came under scrutiny after members of staff planned to organize a milestone union vote.

In that battle’s aftermath, Jeff Bezos said Amazon needed a better vision for employees.

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When asked how he might change the company’s demanding workplace environment, Jassey said the workplace would improve through heavy focus on customers and inventiveness.

“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,” he said.

Amazon is already the second biggest private employer of labour in the US, bringing on more than 500,000 people in 2020. They were mostly employed in the warehouse and delivery operations.

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