Amazon has announced that it is creating 4,000 more permanent jobs across the UK this year, making it one of the 10 largest private sector employers in the country.
The US firm stated that the recruitment drive would bring its permanent workforce in the country to 75,000, having created thousands of new jobs in recent years amid surging online demand.
The new roles this year include warehouse work, corporate positions in London and Manchester, and technology posts in Edinburgh and Cambridge.
Amazon opened four new fulfilment centres across the UK in 2021, with two more in Wakefield and Knowsley set to open this year.
“We’re continuing to invest in talent right across the UK, from apprentices in Swansea to data scientists in Edinburgh,” said John Boumphrey, Amazon UK country manager.
“People join us not just for the wide variety of roles, great pay and benefits, but for the career development opportunities we provide.”
Amazon revealed yesterday that its annual Prime Day event earlier this week was its biggest ever, with its members around the world buying more than 300 million items – 100,000 a minute.
In its most recent quarterly earnings report, Amazon said sales from its online stores segment fell, and its overall operating income came in below market expectations. It also admitted that after two years of aggressive hiring to meet raised demand during the pandemic, the company was now overstaffed in some countries and saddled with too much warehouse space as market conditions returned to normal.
Meanwhile, it was confirmed yesterday that Amazon has offered to stop online selling and marketing practices EU antitrust regulators regard as anti-competitive to try to end two investigations and avoid a possible hefty fine.
In 2020, the European Commission accused Amazon of using its size and data to push its own products on its marketplace platform and gain an unfair advantage over third-party sellers.
The EU announced on Thursday that the US firm has now offered to refrain from using sellers’ data for its own competing retail business and its private label products.
Meanwhile, Amazon will treat sellers equally when ranking their offers for the ‘buy box’ on its website that generates a large share of its sales. It will also set up a second buy box for a rival product if it differs substantially in price and delivery from the product in the first box.
Sellers and offers on its Prime programme will be chosen based on non-discriminatory criteria, with sellers also allowed to choose their own logistics and delivery services company instead of Amazon’s competing logistics services.
Rivals and customers have until 9 September to provide feedback on Amazon’s proposals before the EC decides whether to accept the offer or demand more.
Amazon risks a fine of up to 10% of its global turnover if found guilty of breaching EU rules.
Last week, the UK’s competition regulator announced that it had begun investigating Amazon over concerns that practices affecting sellers on its marketplace may be anti-competitive and could result in a worse deal for consumers.
