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Amazon To Add 100,000 Full-Time US Jobs in Next 18 Months (geekwire.com)
An anonymous reader shares a GeekWire report: Amazon just made a big statement about its continued growth aspirations, announcing that it plans to add another 100,000 full-time jobs in the U.S. over the next 18 months, an increase of more than 55 percent in its domestic workforce. The growth would push Amazon's U.S. workforce to more than 280,000 people by mid 2018. Amazon said in an announcement that the jobs will be available to people "all across the country and with all types of experience, education and skill levels -- from engineers and software developers to those seeking entry-level positions and on-the-job training."
Cool, but Amazon is simply cannibalizing the retail sector. That 100,000 jobs probably represents 1/3 (or more) of the total retail sector jobs that will be lost as Amazon pushes out less efficient players in the market. I'm all for it, I love Amazon, but let's not fool ourselves into thinking this is something that is going to be happy for the "fight for $15" crowd in the country. (They will be unemployed).
You can rest assured that this is one company that wont credit Trump in any way for these jobs.
But you can rest assured that Trump himself will try to claim some credit. That's just how he rolls.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
My guess is that they're just extrapolating out an estimate of the number of people it will take to run their new in-house FedEx/UPS service and staff warehouses. Also, if I were a retailer, I'd be banking on trying to capitalize on Sears and Macy's likely bankruptcies in the next 18 months. Macy's might survive in a smaller form but I'm sure Sears is going to be parted out because it's being run by a hedge fund. I doubt technical jobs will be a double-digit percent of this amount -- it's going to be line-level grunts packing boxes, flying planes, driving delivery trucks, etc.
I've also heard many stories about how Amazon is to work for in both technical and ground level positions. I don't think I'd want a tech position there, even though they're working on really cool stuff with AWS. Accounts from alumni I've heard describe it as a huge employer who's insanely tight-fisted and never grew up out of startup crunch mode. Their perfect employee is a fresh grad with no previous experience that will say nothing of working nights, weekends, etc. for low pay. I think the phrase "Seattle hundreds" was coined there initially. Add that to the pressure-cooker back stabbing culture I've heard described many times, and I think I'll pass!
?
Yeah, I didn't think so.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
You can rest assured that this is one company that wont credit Trump in any way for these jobs.
But you can rest assured that Trump himself will try to claim some credit. That's just how he rolls.
I'm not sure why this matters.
Adding 100,000 domestic workers in the US seems like it's a good thing. It even seems quite likely that many (if not all) of these jobs could have been outsourced or performed in a foreign office, and Amazon itself says that these are "across the board" jobs, and not simply seasonal or fulfilment slave-labor.
And you should also admit that Trump is largely the source of the "hire local" climate, he's caused companies to rethink their outsourcing plans, especially in light of the alternative candidate who said explicitly that she wants completely open borders for job seekers.
But none of that matters. I don't think many people really care who takes the credit.
Is it important to you?
Help me out here.
Why should credit even matter?
Amazon: Worse than Wal-Mart: Amazon's sick brutality and secret history of ruthlessly intimidating workers (February 23, 2014)
... CenturyLink (CTL) customers trying to access particular sites from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. will have unbearably slow speeds."
Amazon: Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace (August 15, 2015) Quote: "The company is conducting an experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers..."
Amazon: Amazon Under Fire Over Alleged Worker Abuse in Germany (February 19, 2013)
Microsoft: Microsoft Is Filled With Abusive Managers And Overworked Employees, Says Tell-All Book (May 23, 2012)
Seattle: Together with Microsoft and bad city management, Seattle is a miserable place:
Traffic: Seattle one of the worst U.S. cities for traffic congestion, tied with NYC (March 31, 2015) Quote: "An additional 23 minutes a day spent in traffic may not sound like much, but when it adds up over a year it becomes 89 hours." (Whoever wrote that must be accustomed to Seattle misery. An additional 23 minutes a day spent in traffic sounds HORRIBLE.)
Slow internet: Many areas of Seattle have poor internet connections. See the article, These places have the slowest Internet in the country. (June 25, 2015) Quote: "... Seattle
So what? If folks don't want the jobs they don't have have to take them. If they need the jobs they'll be there. Income is better than no income...
I'm inclined to agree based on this amazon result, sprint, carrier, Ford, kicking foreign cheap HB1 labor out, alibaba possibly too - probably more too!
This is all just Trump's PR machine taking credit for things that happen all the time anyway. According to The Reshoring Initiative, about 3000 jobs per month moved back to the US from 2009-2016. In 2015 it was almost 5600 jobs per month. With Carrier saving 800 jobs immediately, Sprint creating 5000 jobs over 12 months, and Ford creating 700 jobs in an undetermined amount of time, it all comes up to well under 1000 jobs per month. And arguably only a few hundred of them would have been counted by the Reshoring Initiative, so it's an even smaller number compared to previous years than it looks. These are all just very small deals being made at a local level which happen all of the time.
When presidents save jobs, they do it millions at a time. Like when Obama saved an estimated 1.5 million automotive jobs through TARP. It's not fair to compare Trump's accomplishments with Obama's since Trump hasn't entered office yet, but these minor news stories are the type of wins a mayor or governor would brag about, not a President elect. The type of deal making where Trump sits in an office with individual business owners (even if the business is as big as Ford) is not the type which will make meaningful change for American workers.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
I think most people would rather see 10,000 quality jobs added rather than 100,000 verging on slave labor jobs.
Unemployment is much higher among the unskilled, so those "quality" jobs would go unfilled since the unemployed are not qualified for them. Most households below the poverty line are not there because of low pay, but because of NO pay. 60% of poor households have no one in full time employment. Entry level jobs help these people, and get them onto the employment ladder where, with effort, they can move up.
Also, many of the 100k are "quality" jobs for engineers, programmers, etc., and all of them come with benefits (health care, vacation, parental leave, etc).