Amazon is stockpiling for its warehouses — and it’s not products this time around.
The Internet retailer says it plans to add 80,000 seasonal workers across its U.S. network of fulfillment and sortation centers.
Amazon (AMZN) is bringing on 14% more seasonal workers this year as the company expands its supply network to offer new services such as Sunday delivery and later cut-off ordering times. However, the additional hires are smaller than last year when Amazon added 40% more seasonal workers year-over-year.
Other retailers also plan to increase their seasonal worker headcount. Macy’s (M) said it would up its seasonal hiring to 86,000 workers, Kohl’s (KSS) said it will raise its hiring to 67,000 workers, and Gap (GPS) will add nearly 63,000 workers.
Many of those temporary workers could hope to stay on board. Amazon has already converted 10,000 seasonal employees into regular, full-time roles this year.
“We’re looking forward to converting thousands more across our growing network of fulfillment and sortation centers after this holiday season,” Mike Roth, Amazon’s vice president of North America operations, said in a statement.
The retailer is staffing up to meet what it expects to be an increase in customer demand over the coming months.
The new employees will be spread across the company’s 50 fulfillment centers and more than 15 sortation centers by the end of the year. The sortation centers are part of Amazon’s growing supply network that will help process its new innovative shopping programs and are often located closer to highly-populated urban centers.
