Amazon CEO unveils 55K tech jobs in first hiring push under his watch

Amazon.com Inc is planning to hire 55,000 people for corporate and technology roles globally in the coming months, Chief Executive Andy Jassy told Reuters.

That’s equal to more than a third of Google’s headcount as of June 30, and close to all of Facebook’s.

Jassy, in his first press interview since he ascended to Amazon’s top post in July, said it needed more firepower to keep up with demand in retail, the cloud, and advertising, among other businesses. The firm’s new bet to launch satellites into orbit to widen broadband access, called Project Kuiper, would require a lot of new hires, too.

With Amazon’s annual job fair scheduled to begin September 15, Jassy hopes now is a good time for recruiting. “There are so many jobs during the pandemic that have been displaced or have been altered, and there are so many people who are thinking about different and new jobs,” said Jassy, who cited a US survey from PwC that 65% of workers wanted a new gig.

“It’s part of what we think makes Career Day so timely and so useful,” he said. The new hires would represent a 20% increase in Amazon’s tech and corporate staff, who currently number around 275,000 globally, the company said.

Amazon’s move, only the latest hiring spree on which it has embarked, follows a period of heightened scrutiny of its labor practices and opposition by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Earlier this year, a failed effort by some staff in Alabama to organize put on display Amazon’s taxing warehouse work and its aggressive stance against unions. In that battle’s aftermath, Jeff Bezos, the CEO whom Jassy succeeded, said Amazon needed a better vision for employees.

Asked how he might change Amazon’s demanding workplace culture, Jassy said its heavy focus on customers and inventiveness set it up for improvements. “Everybody at the company has the freedom - and really, the expectation - to critically look at how it can be better and then invent ways to make it better.”