Amazon launches global recruitment drive including in UK

Around 40,000 jobs will be in the US, with 2,500 in the UK and the remainder in India, Germany and Japan.

Amazon is seeking staff for roles in fields such as robotics and engineering. 

The hiring plan was revealed by new chief executive, Andy Jassy, in his first interview since succeeding founder Jeff Bezos in the post.

Speaking to Reuters, Jassy said the recruitment drive was driven by the need to keep up with demand in retail, the cloud and advertising, as well as in new businesses such as Project Kuiper to send satellites into orbit that will increase broadband access. 

Later this month, Amazon will run its annual job fair, known as Career Day, and Jassy said the changes wrought by the Covid-19 crisis mean it is a good time to hire.

He said: ”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.”

Amazon said that during Career Day last year, it received ”the highest one-week number of job applications in the history of the company” and that it had recently been named by LinkedIn as the “number one company where Americans want to work and develop their careers”.

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