Amazon Career Day Starts Today With 33,000 Available Jobs

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen millions of Americans left without jobs. This event has forced many workers to seek new means of employment or possibly change career paths. On top of the massive unemployment numbers, we have also seen many S&P 500 companies implement company wide hiring freezes. For companies that are continuing to hire employees in work from home environment, there are many challenges. While many companies are slowing down hiring, Amazon shows no signs of the sort and continues to hire. The company is very much in demand, while many Americans are ordering groceries and essential items online and using AWS cloud services.  

It is an interesting time to be a job seeker. Many people who lost jobs amidst the Covid-19 pandemic will have to search for jobs outside of its previous industry and possibly outside its core competency. According to a recent Amazon survey that was conducted by Morning Consult, “77% of job seekers are concerned on find new work, 61% of workers have to switch industries to find more work, and 36% feel that its main job doesn’t utilize its main skills or training.”

This week Amazon announced that the company would be hosting Amazon Career Day on September 16^th. The event marks one of the single largest hiring events ever hosted by an employer. The goal is to find qualified applicants for the 33,000 corporate and tech roles that are currently open. Amazon has continued its ambitious hiring commitments throughout the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and for that, I commend them. While many global companies implement hiring freezes and layoffs, Amazon is continuing to invest in human capital.

The event

Amazon Career Day is a big day for the company and applicants alike. It is time for applicants to show off their skills and for Amazon to collect resumes and spend a few minutes with each applicant consulting and looking over resumes. While Amazon has plenty of corporate and tech job openings, 33,000 to be exact, there are plenty of applicants to fill those roles. Last year, Amazon Career Day brought 17,000 job seekers to apply for positions in person. On top of that, Amazon received 200,000 job applications in a single week following its popular event.

This year’s Amazon Career Day will be just as impressive as last year’s Career Day. The event is open to all job seekers and will look a bit different than previous years. The main difference in this year’s event is that it will be hosted entirely virtually. A successful event will lead to the filling of many of the 33,000 corporate and tech roles that are currently open spanning Alexa, AWS, Operations, and Prime Video. There will be 1,000 Amazon recruiters in attendance that will conduct over 20,000 free career coaching sessions and resume help for applicants. I found it interesting that even if a job candidate is not interested in Amazon as an employer, it can still get resume help from Amazon recruiters. The new roles will be reported to different Amazon offices across the nation, including Denver, New York, Phoenix, and Seattle. The current plan is to onboard employees remotely and returns to the office at some point. That date remains in the air.

Amazon’s economic impact

The roles that I touched on above wouldn’t mean much without competitive pay and benefits. Working for one of the most successful corporations in the world does have its perks. All Amazon employees start with a competitive salary that includes a mandatory $15/hour minimum wage, access to health insurance, and up to 20 weeks of paid leave for parents. The $15/hour minimum wage may not impress all comers, but let’s keep in mind that the national average is still $7.25 and has been for over a decade. Amazon is doubling that wage at the entry-level. When you pair that salary with company-funded upskilling opportunities for employees looking to gain new skills or work in a different function, the long-term employment future of Amazon employees is looking bright.

Amazon has some firm ground to stand on when we talk about economic impact over the last decade. In the last decade, the company has created more jobs than any other company and hired 120 employees per day. The company has contributed over $315 billion to the U.S. GDP in the last decade as well. When Amazon does well, so do its employees. I am happy to see Amazon continuing to invest in hiring in these trying times.  

Check out my Forbes article from August where I wrote about Amazon’s previous announcement to create 20,000 jobs and expand tech hubs across the country here.

Wrapping up

Without jobs, people lose hope. In recent months, many Americans have lost jobs and many abilities to provide for their families. There are plenty of people searching for employment opportunities in the middle of the pandemic, and very few companies rival Amazon in terms of hiring capacity at this current moment. Amazon Career Day will be an excellent opportunity for job seekers to get back to work and may offer a better career opportunity to some. I am happy to see the company putting its foot on the gas while the Covid-19 pandemic continues. Great job, Amazon.

Note: Moor Insights & Strategy writers and editors may have contributed to this article. 

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