Amazon plans to hire another 125,000 warehouse workers and delivery drivers in the United States, as well as 40,000 more corporate employees.
The new hiring would bring Amazon's U.S. headcount to well over 1 million workers, excluding the gig and contract-based workers who work for Amazon Prime delivery operations.
Amazon has reportedly struggled to retain and recruit the workers it needs for its fulfillment and warehouse operations because of high rates of turnover caused by worker dissatisfaction with time quotas, injury rates, a glitchy HR system, coronavirus rules and other issues. The company is the second-largest private employer in the United States after Walmart (which employs around 1.6 million people), and its career page usually lists tens of thousands of open jobs on any given day.
Amazon recently expanded its "free college" program for all employees after three months of working as a new benefit intended to attract workers; it also plans to start most of the new jobs around $18 per hour, according to a press statement.