Half of Queens Amazon Jobs Won't Be Tech Positions
November 21 2018 - 2:10PM
Dow Jones News
By Katie Honan
Only half of the positions that Amazon.com Inc. has promised to
bring to its new headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, will be
tech jobs, New York City officials said Tuesday night.
During a presentation to local residents, officials from the
city's Economic Development Corp. said that of the at least 25,000
jobs that the online retailer plans to bring to the waterfront
community in Queens, 12,500 will be in tech.
The other half will be "administrative jobs, custodial staff,
HR, all those things," said Eleni Bourinaris-Suarez, vice president
of government and community relations at the EDC, which helped
broker the deal with Amazon.
Amazon announced last week that it would set up shop in Long
Island City, with the support of up to $3 billion in city and state
tax incentives and grants that are contingent on the creation of at
least 25,000 jobs. At that time, It did not provide a breakdown of
the jobs that would be created but said the average annual salary
would be $150,000.
The company also chose Crystal City, Va., as the site of its
other new headquarters and has promised to bring at least 25,000
jobs there as well. In addition it is building an operations center
with 5,000 employees in Nashville, Tenn.
Stephen Moret, president and chief executive of the Virginia
Economic Development Partnership, said Amazon told Virginia
officials to expect the same breakdown for the company's Northern
Virginia headquarters. "They've said from the beginning they
expected it to be about 50-50," Mr. Moret said.
The selections capped a yearlong search for a site to build its
new headquarters, one that sparked a national competition among
cities, with some offering enormous subsidies to attract the
company. Initially, Amazon had planned to build one new
headquarters with 50,000 employees. But as the search drew to a
close, it decided to split the headquarters into two locations,
reasoning that it could tap into more tech talent.
A spokesman for Amazon did not immediately respond to an email
seeking comment.
During the process, Amazon didn't publicly provide a breakdown
on the type of jobs that would be created. In its initial documents
to cities laying out its requirements, the company said there would
be multiple job categories including software development engineers
as well as legal, accounting, and administrative jobs. It said the
breakdown of job categories would be subject to change.
"The tech industry has a full spectrum, and this HQ would
include everyone from the C-suite to administrative to custodial to
coders and the like," said Nate Bliss, the senior vice president
for development at the EDC, who presented the HQ2 plan at the
meeting.
The city officials made the presentation to a local community
board in Queens. The community board, which is made up of residents
in Long Island City and surrounding neighborhoods, has some
oversight over land-use issues and can provide input into city
decision-making. The meeting was the first since Amazon's
announcement.
The city officials said details on the jobs at the site had not
been completed. They noted Amazon's commitment to paying its
workers a minimum of $15 an hour, which will become the minimum
wage in New York City by the end of the year.
There are still unknowns around the exact types of jobs Amazon
will bring to its Queens base, according to Robert Hess, the vice
chairman for consulting at Newmark Knight Frank Global Corporate
Services, who was involved in New York's bid for the company.
"Right now they're going through a complete national look at
functions and where those functions should be," he said. "It's too
early to land on these functions."
Although it is illegal to have a hiring quota around geography,
Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he wanted to ensure local residents,
particularly those living in nearby public housing developments,
tapped into these opportunities. The city and state's deal with
Amazon includes $15 million for job training, with $5 million
coming from Amazon.
--Joshua Jamerson contributed to this article.
Write to Katie Honan at katie.honan@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 21, 2018 14:55 ET (19:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024