Amazon announced that it will hire 50,000 “temporary associates” inside several of its fulfillment centers across the country for the upcoming holiday season.
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“Temporary associates play a critical role in meeting increased customer demand during the holiday season, and we expect thousands of temporary associates will stay on in full-time positions,” Dave Clark, vice president, Global Customer Fulfillment at Amazon said in a press release.
During the regular season, Amazon employs more than 20,000 workers across its 40 U.S.-based fulfillment centers. Although the release did not state how many seasonal employees were hired in 2011, Reuters is reporting that 50,000 employees is an increase from last year.
Amazon isn’t the only retailer who is boosting employee numbers this holiday, The Limited, Kohls, Target, Toys “R” Us, and Walmart have all publicly stated that they too expect to see season worker numbers jump.
- Kohls is expected to hire more than 52,700 employees
- Toys “R” Us is said to hire 45,000 additional employees
- Walmart is expected to hire 50,000
- Target plans to hire about 80,000 to 90,000 seasonal employees for its stores and distribution centers
- The Limited said it will hire 2,000 season employees
The National Retail Federation is also expecting to see high sales this season, in fact the retail trade association predicts that holiday sales this year will rise 4.1%, to $586.1 billion.
NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said earlier this month that this is the “most optimistic forecast we’ve released since the recession. We consider this solid growth, a solid projection, and a step in the right direction. We think Santa’s helpers are going to be on the hook for overtime this holiday season.”
Erin Lynch is the associate editor at Multichannel Merchant. Erin can be reached at 203-358-3755 or by emailing her at [email protected]. You can also follow her on Twitter at @LynchMCM or on LinkedIn.