Amazon To Add 55,000, Walmart 20,000 Workers As Ecommerce Grows Further

The announcements underscore the degree to which large companies increasingly dominate employment though given hiring shortages already plaguing businesses, there is some question as to how Amazon and Walmart will find the workers they need. 

One option is to hire outside the US for those in technological jobs. JL

Dave Sebastian and Jennifer Smith report in the Wall Street Journal:

The hiring comes as retailers and logistics operators are moving their peak-season preparations forward as they grapple with a tight labor market, congested shipping networks and surging supply-chain volatility. Amazon aims to fill roles in its Alexa smart-speaker division and in physical retail as the company plans to open department stores, Amazon Web Services, Amazon Studios, advertising and broadband satellite. Walmart is hiring for supply chain operations. The new hires will be permanent positions aimed at supporting Walmart through the holiday surge and beyond

Amazon. AMZN -0.46% com Inc. said it is seeking to hire about 55,000 people globally among its corporate and technology ranks during a recruiting event set for Sept. 15, as the e-commerce giant continues a hiring spree begun at start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Seattle-based company is aiming to fill roles in cloud-computing unit Amazon Web Services, as well as in divisions such as Amazon Studios, advertising and its broadband satellite Project Kuiper. The open positions include more than 40,000 roles in the U.S. across 220 locations, including in New York City; Bellevue, Wash.; and Arlington, Va., where the company is opening a large corporate office.

Amazon, the nation’s second-largest employer behind Walmart Inc., has gone on several hiring sprees since the start of the pandemic, mostly adding hundreds of thousands of hourly employees to its warehousing operations. The company employs about 950,000 people in the U.S. and has said it has made more than 450,000 hires throughout the country since the public-health crisis began.

Amazon’s hiring underscores its continued growth plans in many different industries. The roles Amazon is seeking to fill also include positions in its Alexa smart-speaker division and in physical retail as the company plans to open department stores to sell clothing and other products, The Wall Street Journal reported in August. The hiring spree will be the first under new Chief Executive Andy Jassy, who took over the top job in July from company founder Jeff Bezos.

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Amazon said attendees at its career-day event can participate in one of more than 20,000 career-coaching sessions with a company recruiter. It said it is also offering coaching sessions for Amazon employees looking to advance their careers internally or elsewhere.

The company also said it is hosting its first career-day event in Canada on Sept. 15. It said more than 1,800 corporate and technology roles are currently available in the country. 

Walmart Inc. is hiring 20,000 workers for its supply-chain operations ahead of the holidays, highlighting the growing role of distribution and delivery as the retailer competes with e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc.

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The new hires will be permanent positions aimed at supporting Walmart through the holiday surge and beyond, the retailer said Wednesday. The full- and part-time jobs range from order pickers, freight handlers and forklift operators to technician and management roles at more than 250 Walmart and Sam’s Club distribution and fulfillment centers and transportation offices.

The hiring comes as retailers and logistics operators are moving their peak-season preparations forward as they grapple with a tight labor market, congested shipping networks and surging supply-chain volatility.

Last year, Walmart brought on some 20,000 seasonal workers at e-commerce facilities, including pop-up online fulfillment sites, as the company and others fielded unprecedented digital sales demand during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic.

Walmart’s U.S. online sales growth slowed in the second quarter, rising 6% over the pandemic-fueled e-commerce sales seen during the same period in 2020 as consumers emerged from their homes and returned to in-store shopping. Comparable sales from U.S. stores and digital channels operating for at least 12 months rose 5.2% year-over-year in the latest quarter, when the company said it planned to add automation at dozens of regional distribution centers to help speed the movement of goods.

Walmart said the average wage for its supply-chain workers is $20.37 an hour. The company also is offering its field-based workers, including those in supply-chain operations, a $150 cash bonus for getting the Covid-19 vaccination. Walmart warehouse jobs pay at least $15 an hour, although pay rates vary depending on the role and the region. The company also is offering bonuses to many warehouse employees as it ramps up for the holidays.

Competition for workers has pushed up wages for distribution jobs as businesses rush to restock pandemic-depleted inventories and meet surging online demand. Warehousing and storage payrolls accounted for 1.44 million jobs in July, more than half a million more than the sector counted just five years ago, according to seasonally adjusted preliminary employment figures the Labor Department released last month.

Earlier this year, Amazon said it was raising pay for hourly employees by between 50 cents and $3 an hour, although the online sales leader declined to say what the average raise would be. Amazon’s starting wage for warehouse workers is at least $15 an hour. The Walmart rival said Wednesday it was hiring to fill tens of thousands of hourly positions in its operations network, in addition to more than 40,000 corporate and technology roles in the U.S.

“The pay rate has to be competitive because that’s the first thing hourly associates look for,” said Brian Devine, senior vice president of logistics-staffing firm ProLogistix, which works with companies such as Walmart Inc. and Target Corp. The firm’s average starting pay for warehouse workers was $17.31 an hour in the week ended Aug. 14, he said, up nearly 14% from the same period in 2020.

“There’s simply not enough human beings to fill all the open positions,” he said.