Amazon has announced plans to open its second large-scale fulfilment centre (FC) facility in Stockton, California in the United States. The new site will create more than 1,000 full-time jobs at a 1 million-square-foot facility.
There are existing Amazon fulfilment centres in Central and Northern California located in Fresno, Newark, Patterson, Sacramento, Tracy and Vacaville. Amazon says it has created more than 39,000 jobs in California and since 2011 invested over $19 billion in the state, including infrastructure it has built and salaries and the like paid to employees. A further estimate says that its direct investments in California contributed an additional $15 billion to the state’s economy from 2011-2017 and generated an additional 50,000 indirect jobs on top of the company’s direct hires. There are also apparently more than 175,000 small and medium-sized businesses in California selling on Amazon.
Since we first began operating in California six years ago, we have found a network of support from community leaders, a dedicated workforce and fantastic customers. We’re excited to expand in Stockton and develop our employees through on-the-job skills training and through our Career Choice program, which hundreds of our California associates have used to go back to school.
– Mark Stewart, Vice President North America Operations, Amazon
More strongly than ever, especially in the light of recent criticism from Senator Bernie Sanders about working conditions and ongoing press scrutiny, Amazon is keen to reiterate the worker benefits it offers as a benevolent employer. And this time it is extolling the Career Choice program in its publicity.
Career Choice is where the company will pre-pay up to 95% of tuition fees for courses related to in-demand fields, regardless of whether the skills are relevant to a career at Amazon. Since the program’s launch, they claim that over 16,000 associates have pursued degrees in game design and visual communications, nursing, IT programming and radiology.
