Amazon want 50% more seasonal staff this year rising from the 10,000 they needed for Christmas 2012 to 15,000 for 2013.
Catherine McDermott, director of operations at Amazon UK revealed that “On our busiest shopping day last Christmas, customers ordered a total of 3.5 million items during one 24-hour period at a rate of 44 items a second” adding that “During the Christmas season, seasonal associates play a critical role in making sure we meet increased demand from customers”.
Of course it’s not just shipping Amazon retail products either, many retailers are using Amazon FBA, getting Amazon to do their pick, pack and shipping for them. At Christmas this increases as if you’re own warehouse can’t cope it’s often easier to simply ship your fast selling items to Amazon and make it their problem to deliver the goods and associated service.
It’s not secret that working in an Amazon warehouse is hard work and workers should expect to walk several miles every day. However there are rewards for those that enjoy the work – 10%, around 1000 of the temps that worked at Amazon last year saw their seasonal job turn into a job offer.
