e-commerce gets big: Amazon hiring 50,000 seasonal workers

Amazon said tonight that it is hiring for 50,000 seasonal worker positions for the holiday shopping season.

The Seattle-based e-commerce company says it will hire the workers at its fulfillment centers (the warehouses that carry out orders from its web site).

“In addition to the thousands of people we’ve hired for full-time jobs this year, we’re proud to be adding more than 50,000 seasonal jobs this holiday,” said Dave Clark, vice president, global customer fulfillment at Amazon. “We’re hiring at our sites across the U.S. for talented individuals to help us deliver a great experience for our customers this holiday season. 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.”

Amazon has more than 20,000 people working at 40 fulfillment centers around the U.S. It says it pays its full-time permanent employees 30 percent more than what traditional retail store employees earn, not counting stock grants that full-time employees earn. Over the past five years, those grants have added an average of 9 percent base pay per year.

Amazon launched Career Choice, a program designed to help employees with career choices. Applications are available online at http://www.amazonfulfillmentcareers.com.

[Image credit: mcall]