Online giants Amazon.com Inc is planning to hire 55,000 people for corporate and technology roles globally in the coming months, Chief Executive Andy Jassy told Reuters. Jassy, in his first press interview since he ascended to Amazon’s top post in July, said the company needed more firepower to keep up with demand in retail, the cloud and advertising, among other businesses. He said the company's new bet to launch satellites into orbit to widen broadband access, called Project Kuiper, would require a lot of new hires, too. With Amazon's annual job fair scheduled to begin Sept. 15, Jassy hopes now is a good time for recruiting.
“There are so many jobs during the pandemic that have been displaced or have been altered, and there are so many people who are thinking about different and new jobs,” said Jassy, who cited a US survey from PwC that 65% of workers wanted a new gig. The new hires would represent a 20% increase in Amazon's tech and corporate staff, who currently number around 275,000 globally, the company said. Asked how he might change Amazon’s demanding workplace culture, Jassy said its heavy focus on customers and inventiveness set it up for improvements. “Everybody at the company has the freedom - and really, the expectation - to critically look at how it can be better and then invent ways to make it better.” Of the more than 55,000 jobs Jassy announced, over 40,000 will be in the United States, while others will be in countries such as India, Germany and Japan. The career fair will be global. That's after Amazon saw 22,000 people tune in last year from India, among other locales outside the United States, Jassy said.