As it struggles to extend next-day delivery for customers, Amazon (AMZN.O.) announced that it aims to recruit 250,000 additional US workers for the Christmas shopping season, a 67% increase over the number of people it hired for the previous two years.
As a result of forecasts for lower consumer spending in 2023, other US retailers claim they will recruit fewer staff in their shops and warehouses this year. Amazon's plans conflict with these claims. Due to worries about rising prices, forecasters anticipate that Christmas sales will be half as high as they were last year.
Seasonal hiring is expected to drop to its lowest since 2008 due to higher costs and weak consumer confidence, according to researchers Challenger, Gray, and Christmas.
On Tuesday, Target (TGT.N) said that it will retain its yearly hiring goal of 100,000 employees for the holiday shopping season. Target also intends to start promoting sales in October.
For the approaching Christmas season, Macy's (M.N.) announced it will hire more than 38,000 full- and part-time employees, down from the previous year.
Walmart (WMT.N.), a major American retailer, has not yet revealed its recruiting intentions for the holidays. But in 2022, it employed 40,000 seasonal employees.
Amazon has increased recruiting as it gears up for its enlarged autumn Prime Event, which will take place from October 10 to 11. This comes after it added 50 additional fulfillment centers, delivery stations, and same-day delivery in the United States.
The e-commerce giant is urging its merchants to offer discounts during Amazon's Prime Event, a move that may persuade some thrifty buyers to get out their wallets and splurge on gifts well in advance of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping days.
Full-time, part-time, and seasonal fulfillment workers are all included in Amazon's seasonal recruiting, the company stated.
In comparison to colleagues who got $3,000 incentives in specific areas in 2022 and 2021, new seasonal workers employed to pick, sort, pack, and ship orders will get sign-on bonuses between $1,000 and $3,000 in select locations, the company said.
In comparison to the $19 hourly rate paid to workers last year, Amazon said it will pay its seasonal employees an average of $17 to $28 per hour, depending on their tasks and regions.
The Seattle-based online retailer announced that it will allocate $1.3 billion for wage hikes for transportation and fulfillment staff this year.
According to John Felton, senior vice president of worldwide operations at Amazon, "A fulfillment or transportation employee who starts with us today will see a 13% increase in pay over the next three years—probably more, including our annual wage investments."
Following a wave of tech layoffs, Amazon earlier this year let go of 27,000 employees, or nearly 9% of its workforce, from its advertising, cloud computing, and human resources divisions.