By Sebastian Herrera
Amazon.com Inc. will keep most of the U.S. jobs it added to meet
demand in March and April as it sees the surge in online orders
during the pandemic as a harbinger of lasting demand for its
products and services.
Amazon said Thursday it will give 125,000 of the 175,000
temporary hires the option of staying on full time, signaling it
expects the recent growth to continue. The company said the jobs
add to a nonseasonal U.S. workforce -- both full-time and part-time
-- that it recently put at more than 500,000.
As companies across industries have shed millions of jobs during
the pandemic, Amazon, Walmart Inc. and others that provide
essential goods have been among the few adding workers. Most,
however, were temporary hires.
U.S. unemployment surged to a record 14.7% last month, and
payrolls dropped by a historic 20.5 million workers, wiping out a
decade of job gains in a single month.
Amazon's move to retain more than 70% of the employees it added
as the pandemic took hold points to the strength of large retailers
and technology companies that have weathered the crisis, as well as
to an accelerated shift to online shopping.
"As we have seen sustained demand ongoing, we expect to continue
to see a lot of demand from customers throughout the rest of the
year," Dave Clark, Amazon's senior vice president of world-wide
operations, said in an interview.
The company's decision is good news for Erick Womack, who began
to work at an Amazon warehouse in the Gainesville, Fla., area this
month after losing his job at a third-party billing firm.
Mr. Womack, who has been working on a temporary basis, had hoped
to stay on permanently. After he lost his prior job, he applied for
administrative assistant roles at more than 30 companies but hadn't
heard back.
"I don't have to worry now about going on a job hunt any time
soon," said Mr. Womack, who is 27 years old. "That uncertainty goes
away."
Amazon began its hiring spree in March after people sheltering
in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus flooded it with
orders for toilet paper, food, household products and other
necessities.
Grocery chains Kroger Co. and Albertsons Cos. disclosed plans in
March to hire tens of thousands of workers to meet the surging
demand. The companies say they aren't sure how many of those
employees will stay on permanently.
Walmart, the nation's largest private employer, has added more
than 235,000 workers since mid-March, most in temporary positions.
A company spokeswoman said the retailer has converted some new
hires to permanent roles and expected to do so with "many more" in
the future, although she didn't specify how many.
"We're glad we've been able to offer bridge employment to so
many displaced workers," the spokeswoman said. "We're seeing many
return to their respective industries as parts of the country
reopen and expect that to continue."
The 125,000 positions at Amazon are more than it would typically
add during those months, a spokeswoman said, without providing
details. Mr. Clark said Amazon was able to bring on so many workers
in such a short period of time because many hiring processes, such
as interviews, happened virtually.
As demand surged, some workers at Amazon's more than 500 U.S.
warehouses stopped showing up. Some said they were fearful of
working during the pandemic and others decided to make use of leave
policies the company put in place.
Workers at several warehouses have held walkouts to protest what
they said are unsafe working conditions. While Amazon hasn't said
how many employees have been infected with the virus, crowdsourced
estimates from worker coalitions are in the hundreds, and several
workers have died from the virus.
Mr. Clark said Amazon views total virus cases at its warehouses
as a "relatively unimportant measure." Instead, he said the company
puts greater emphasis on the number of workers who have to be
placed in quarantine when there is a case -- tallies, he said, that
have been below averages for the communities where Amazon
warehouses are located.
Amazon is also concerned about the privacy of worker families,
Mr. Clark said.
Amazon said it is incurring about $4 billion in
coronavirus-related expenses, including for personal protective
equipment, cleaning of facilities and an initiative to test
employees for the coronavirus. Mr. Clark said safety precautions
such as wearing masks and setting up physical barriers between
employees will go on for at least the next 12 months. Some
policies, such as temperature checks, could be permanent, he
said.
Retailers typically hire temporary workers at warehouses and
stores in the run-up to the holiday shopping season. Though some
are normally given the chance to continue permanently once the
season is over, it is unusual for many to be kept. Demand during
the pandemic has been near peak holiday levels for Amazon, Walmart
and other retailers.
The Amazon spokeswoman said the 125,000 figure is based on the
long-term need of warehouses. She also said the 175,000 temporary
hires included delivery drivers who work for third-party companies,
which make their own decisions about how many to keep.
Although the company has gained better control of demand, "we
still definitely have a need for more employees," the spokeswoman
said.
Write to Sebastian Herrera at Sebastian.Herrera@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 28, 2020 17:42 ET (21:42 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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