Amazon to hire 30,000 part-time workers in the US

Amazon yesterday announced plans to hire 30,000 part-time workers in the US over the next year, including 5,000 positions that would allow employees to work from home as customer service representatives.

The company's part-time hires would work 20 or more hours and receive benefits.

About 25,000 of the positions floated by Amazon would work in the company's sorting and fulfillment centres, as the company seeks to expand the number of logistics facilities across the US over the coming years.

Amazon said all its part-time workers were eligible for a Career Choice programme that pre-paid 95 per cent of employees' tuition costs if he or she was working in fields that according to Amazon were "in demand."

Amazon is expanding its business from its online retail roots into other areas and along with its growing entertainment business and formidable cloud computing arm.

It is also developing drone technology that could ultimately see it rely upon its own unmanned aerial vehicles to deliver products to customers' homes.

It has also expanded its offering of same-day delivery to compete against brick-and-mortar retailers.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos had said, he planned to "open new fulfillment centers" across the world and invest in "advanced logistics" technologies like drones.

The 30,000 positions Amazon announced yesterday followed the company's announcement in January that it planned to hire 100,000 full-time employees by the middle of next year.

That sum, plus the 30,000 part-time workers Amazon looked to hire, would expand the company's US employee base to over 300,000 people.

However, Amazon would still be far behind its chief competitor Walmart which currently employed 1.5 million people across the US.

Those interested in applying for Amazon's part-time employment could do so now through the company's jobs site.