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Amazon plans to hire 100,000 over the next 18 months

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Miracle Stewart, right, an employee of Amazon PrimeNow, prepared bags to fill with orders from customers making purchases, at a distribution hub in New York. Amazon said today, that it plans to hire 100,000 people across the U.S. over the next 18 months.

NEW YORK >> Amazon plans to hire 100,000 full-time workers over the next 18 months, highlighting its ambitious expansion plans — and the sharp contrast the e-commerce powerhouse strikes against traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, many of which are cutting jobs and closing stores.

Amazon has long been known for investing the money it makes back into its businesses, and it’s doing that with a vengeance. The new hires will largely support new Amazon fulfillment centers in states such as Texas and California, expanded delivery capabilities and its money-minting Amazon Web Services cloud computing business.

The numbers are generally in line with Amazon’s past hiring plans. Amazon, which had a total of 306,800 full-time and part-time employees globally at the end of September, hired a total of 123,700 globally during the 15 months ended in September, according to quarterly filings.

AMAZON HITS THE GAS

Amazon said today its U.S. workforce has grown from 30,000 in 2011 to over 180,000 at the end of 2016. By comparison, Walmart — the world’s largest retailer — employs about 2.4 million people worldwide, including 1.5 million workers in the U.S.

Baird analyst Colin Sebastian said the announcement shows that Amazon’s hiring appears to be accelerating.

“We view this announcement positively in terms of the current trajectory of Amazon’s businesses, as well as management’s confidence in the long-term outlook,” he said. “The hiring is consistent with our view that Amazon will continue to invest aggressively in its retail, media, technology and logistics businesses.”

TRUMP OR NO TRUMP?

The news comes a month after President-elect Donald Trump met with tech leaders, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Throughout the presidential election campaign Trump and Bezos clashed after Trump attacked Bezos and The Washington Post, which Bezos owns. But they appeared to make nice when Bezos attended the meeting in December.

Sean Spicer, the incoming White House press secretary, noted in a call with reporters today that Amazon made the announcement after the meeting, when Trump urged tech leaders to keep jobs in the U.S.

Spicer said that Trump was “pleased to play a role” in the job gains. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request to comment on what role, if any, Trump had in the jobs announcement.

Baird’s Sebastian downplayed the politics factor, noting only that the online retailer may have deployed some “political capital” in the timing and details of its announcement.

“We suspect there is little, if any, shift of employment at Amazon from international locations to the U.S.,” he said. “Moreover, we expect the pace of hiring internationally to accelerate as well.”

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE STORE

Things are much less rosy at traditional brick-and-mortar retailers. Last week, the Limited said it would close all its stores and Macy’s moved forward with plans to close 68 stores and said it will cut more than 10,000 jobs. There have been unconfirmed reports Walmart is also planning layoffs.

“The move from bricks to clicks is causing major disruption in the retail industry,” said economist Diane Swonk.

19 responses to “Amazon plans to hire 100,000 over the next 18 months”

  1. samidunn says:

    Wonder if they require a college degree

    • dragoninwater says:

      Very few Libtard Politics majors even have a job outside of teaching elementary school these days. It’s a dated and failed major. Sadly millions of young students get suckered by the “D” propaganda the pro “D” newspapers printed into a worthless education that offers no future so they ironically end up competing for grunt fast-food jobs trying to beat the very illegals they embraced and supported! LOL

  2. nodaddynotthebelt says:

    Trump will take credit of course and will blame everyone else for those things that ar not in his favor.

    • scuddrunner says:

      Nodady, Why shouldn’t he? Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO bought the Washington Post to publish “fake news.” Trump caught wind and said, If you create jobs overseas I will tax you heavily.
      Smart move Bezos……….

      With in the next few years Amazon will be everywhere, they already awn most of Seattle.

  3. ALLU says:

    My friends were predicting doom and gloom when Mr. Trump won the election. The market took a slight downturn around that time. Rather than cave in to fears, some purchased shares of Amazon.com stock (AMZN) when the prices dipped. Today? One share of AMZN stock is valued at $813.64. Just imagine if the ERS had invested in Amazon.com stock just a few years prior. It would be in a very nice financial position. Be greedy when others are fearful? I suppose that was the case with those who did buy Amazon when others were predicting the doom of all mankind when Mr. Trump won the Presidency.

    • NanakuliBoss says:

      Trumpf ain’t president yet. Wait till real policies take root. Wonder if Cruz will try to shut down government again.

      • ALLU says:

        Very true– but already, one could argue that the big corporations seem to be assured that Mr. Trump understands business and how to make money. He wants other businesses to make money, too. People seem to wonder why in the world companies like Apple and Google would keep billions of dollars in profits in offseas accounts. Perhaps, it might be that American companies are being severely overtaxed by the U.S. Government. Just take this as an example: there once was a town that had a very successful shipping industry that built luxury yachts. The government decided to slap on a huge “luxury tax” for anyone who bought a yacht. So, what did the buyers do? They stopped buying yachts. Much like how the big corporations stopped keeping their billions in American banks.

      • dragoninwater says:

        Shutting down the government is good! Mandated furloughs for government workers is a good thing! What exactly is the issue Nanakuli?

    • dragoninwater says:

      ERS and the “D” party invested their money in rail, illegals, refugees and the Utopian socialist lifestyle where college grads that took Chicano Studies and Libtard politics are left standing holding their “D” in their hand and wondering who wants to hire them. LOL

    • scuddrunner says:

      Amazon is taking over Seattle. Microsoft and Boeing are taking a backseat, who would have thought.

  4. lokela says:

    Amazon is huge. Heck I wouldn’t mind working for them from home.

  5. pollocoyoco says:

    Hilarious! I understand Trump is directly responsible for Justin Thomas shooting 59 at the Sony Open.

  6. scuddrunner says:

    Amazon has a grocery store in Seattle where you check in and you walk through the store and pick up what ever you want and walk out. There’s a sensor that reads everything in your bag and credits your credit card. This is the future.

    Amazon has a fleet of 767-300ER cargo planes that complete directly with Fed-Ex and UPS.

    Sooner than later Amazon will be in control of everything.

    • dragoninwater says:

      In the meantime, here in the Banana Republic, the mayor, Krook Caldwell was seen memorized and gleaming from cheek-to-cheek by a toy steam powered choo-choo train set during the holidays at the mall. You gotta love the advanced high tech gadgets out here! LOL

  7. youngblood says:

    So now maybe they`ll start shipping fast again like they used to (instead of trying to shove “Prime” down everyone`s throat`s)

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