Amazon UK is to take on more than 10,000 temporary employees as it gears up for an online Christmas rush.
The retailer says it will take on the extra staff in its UK fulfillment centres. At the peak of last Christmas shopping season, Christmas, one delivery truck left an Amazon fulfillment centre once every two minutes and 45 seconds as the centres shipped more than 2.1m units in one 24 hour period.
“On our busiest shopping day last Christmas, we saw customers order a total of three million items during one 24-hour period at a rate of 35 items every second,” said Catherine McDermott, director of operations at Amazon.co.uk. “We look forward to welcoming a good number of new faces to our centres over the coming weeks as well as welcoming back temporary employees who join us every year over the Christmas period.”
The company says that thousands of its temporary staff have moved into permanent roles in the last three years.
“We are a company in growth and when we have permanent positions to fill, it’s the top performing temporary employees that we look to,” said McDermott.
The news comes soon after the opening of Amazon’s eighth UK fulfilment centre, in Hemel Hempstead, which will create 600 permanent jobs. Amazon has also said it will create 2,000 additional permanent new jobs at three further UK fulfilment centres over the next two years.
Recruitment for the jobs is already underway and those interested in applying for a temporary role can visit www.amazon-operations.co.uk
