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Amazon To Hire 20% More Holiday Workers To Meet Growing Demand (bloomberg.com)
Amazon.com is hiring 20 percent more seasonal workers this year, suggesting it anticipates a strong holiday season. Bloomberg reports: The e-commerce giant will add 120,000 seasonal positions, up from 100,000 last year, "to support growing customer demand," said Mike Roth, vice president of customer fulfillment, in a statement. The workers will fill spots in fulfillment and sorting centers and at customer service sites in the U.S. Last year more than 14,000 seasonal employees were shifted to full-time roles after the holidays and the company expects to increase that number this year, Roth said.
Low pay, just under 40 hours, no benefits! Jobs that will disappear come January!
I'm sure Obama will be celebrating the jobs report.
For the global temp job economy, temp jobs will be the only jobs left 10 years from now including the highly overpaid overestimating their own skills kinda jobs... (you earn $200.000 now? It will be $80,000 in 5 years)
Mark this so you can tell me how wrong i was 10 years from now, because i won't be wrong at all...
. . . fewer workers, more robots. I give them 5 years, and they may well have an entirely robotic warehouse. . .
with all these fucking job creators, jack
And the unsurprising aspect is that people will continue to spend money with them, hand over fist. Everybody who spends money with them are just as guilty of this as the company, themselves. People know that Amazon treats its employees like shit, but nobody cares when it comes down to their own wallet.
I don't respond to AC's.
And there you have it America, All of those full time, year round, fully vested pensions and 401k jobs with full health benefits that raised families of 7 throughout the 1960's. Now in the 2010's we have replaced them all with part time seasonal work with Amazon, UPS, USPS, Target, Walmart, and Uber. If we call this "employment" then we're truly in a state of denial. Until we FACE THE FACT that we have 325 Million Americans and about 70 million decent jobs we will never understand REALITY. Let's at the very least FACE THE FACTS and stop putting lipstick on pigs.
I've heard from several under 30s "I just do seasonal work, I don't want to be tied down"
And without any long term responsibility (providing for your own retirement, health, and potentional cancellation of any student loans you have), why not stay a child forever?
Oh wait I forgot that was the plan all along.
Remember the 5th of November.
You know those shit retail jobs that pay like crap but require minimal qualifications? Working for Walmart and other similar stores? Well, an Amazon worker, since robots help bring him the stuff and a computer micromanages his every action, is probably 5 times as effective at moving product as a retail stocker is. So +20k seasonal jobs = -100k shitty retail jobs elsewhere.
Ok, thinking over my post, that isn't quite true. If consumer incomes were still growing - if people were consuming more - then if consumption of various shit from Amazon were 5x what it was before Amazon, then the number of jobs would be the same.
But they aren't.
These crappy temp jobs are going to bubble up into the unemployment numbers and, though the rate is seasonally adjusted, they'll show job growth. What I want to see is real full-time employee job growth, the kind of work that comes with real salaries, retirement and health benefits. It's really sad to see people in their mid-50s driving for Uber because they can't find work after having their jobs offshored or eliminated. Uber will say they're doing people a favor, but I think they and companies like them are contributing to the perception that employees should be treated as disposable commodities.
There has to be a better safety net for these people than what unemployment insurance provides in the US these days. If people could be assured of at least their full salary being replaced for a reasonable amount of time, they might be willing to take more risks, look for a job that's a good fit rather than the first thing that comes along, etc. I know we're supposed to be living in a wondrous time of automation, innovation, etc. but the fact is that most people need something to do. They need full time employment, a sense of purpose, the ability to put down roots, etc. Almost no one can be a fabulously wealthy entrepreneur no matter how much the small business owners/cheerleaders want people to believe that. Very few people want to be nomadic and move from place to place chasing work every year or so.
I know one theory I have on how to solve this is not popular at all, but what about forcing businesses to pre-fund longer-term employee severance packages at a rate proportional to the employee's salary? Employees would be free to leave at will and their pre-funding would go back into a general fund. But, just dumping a worker because you feel like it, offshore their job, etc. would require a payment out of the fund that would actually carry the employee until they could find new work. It's good for the businesses too, because it forces them to really think hard about who they hire rather than just take the first guy who comes in the door. I know every business owner would scream socialism, evil regulations, etc. over this one. But the reality is that every single business, small or large, has huge advantages over regular workers. Business owners can just funnel all their personal expenses through their companies, the really large ones can take advantage of loopholes to pay zero taxes, etc. Having a common sense plan like this makes sense -- it's just a bigger payment into the unemployment insurance fund to ensure people aren't reduced to what amounts to minimum wage when you get thrown out of a job and still have bills to pay.
im eager to hear jeff bezos call for open borders to supply his need for moar illegal immigrant "workers". his bought-and-paid-for mouthpiece, The Washington Post will surely sound the call soon.
And come on down.
They are going to be hiring some 300 people from this area (Washington state, city).
Temp or not this couldn't hurt many. Me? I'll pass.
In the fall of 2011 I needed something to do... I'm over-qualified for just about any regular JOB, but Amazon hires anyone who passes their screening. The gig lasted about 2 months (December/January). I was so relieved when they finally let me go. Humanity's Second-Best Hope was about my time at Amazon (originally posted at Kuro5hin.org [RIP]).
I started driving a taxi a month later. It was a lot of fun, until Wall Street started subsidizing the upstarts...