The e-commerce giant describes itself as the largest job creator in the U.S.
Amazon plans to hire 125,000 more employees in the U.S., and those aren’t seasonal jobs to help with the holiday crunch. That’s coming later.
About 17,000 of the new positions are in Texas, including 11,000 in Dallas-Fort Worth, said Amazon spokesman Daniel Martin.
The e-commerce giant is calling itself the largest job creator in the U.S., hiring over 450,000 people since the beginning of the pandemic. The new hiring round is for full-time and part-time workers in fulfillment and transportation.
This year, Seattle-based Amazon opened more than 250 fulfillment centers, sortation centers, regional air hubs and delivery stations in the U.S.
Locally, it has opened a fulfillment center and delivery station in Forney. Delivery stations also have opened or will open soon in McKinney, Arlington, Mansfield and Fort Worth. Several more are opening in other major Texas cities.
Average starting hourly wages for the new jobs are $18 to $22.50, Martin said. Hiring has started with sign-on bonuses of up to $1,000 in Texas. Hiring bonuses in other U.S. cities may be as much as $3,000, according to the company.
The new jobs are on top of 40,000 corporate and technology jobs Amazon announced earlier this month.
Amazon already has 37,000 employees in D-FW, up from about 20,000 last summer, when the pandemic sent more shoppers online. In Texas, it had more than 70,000 employees as of last month.
Amazon’s announcement comes as California is trying to regulate warehouse performance metrics in an effort to make those jobs safer. The state approved the first legislation that would require companies like Amazon to disclose productivity quotas at their fulfillment centers. The bill is on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk, but he hasn’t said whether he will sign it.
The National Labor Relations Board said last month that Amazon interfered with a union election at an Alabama fulfillment center and recommended a rerun of the voting.
Twitter: @MariaHalkias
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