Amazon has declared to hire 15,000 warehouse and distribution workers in Canada. The e-commerce giant has plans to expand its operations in Canada.
Since the pandemic has drastically affected the Canadian labor market, there is a shortage of laborers in several sectors. Amid these shortages, Amazon Canada has come up with an additional measure to fill new job vacancies. The company has hiked wages of current and new employees.
Amazon has said that it will increase the wages by $1.60 and $2.20 per hour. So, as per the new wage system, the company will pay new employees between $17 and $21.65 per hour. Both part-time and full-time workers can receive this benefit of increased wages. As of now, the starting wage is $16 per hour.
Existing Amazon employees will also get an additional bump of $1.60 to $2.20 per hour, irrespective of how long they have served the company.
In a recent interview, the director of Amazon’s customer fulfillment operations has talked about the expansion of the e-commerce business and about the need for hiring and retaining skilled talent amid the rising labor shortages.
From the bits of the interview, we can make it out that Amazon Canada will soon hire more employees in the upcoming days.
Presently, Amazon has employed 25,000 people in offices spread across five Canadian provinces. As the coronavirus pandemic imposed lockdowns in all parts of the country, the online shopping sector experienced a sudden boom.
As of now, Amazon has around 46 warehouse, logistics, and delivery centers in Canada. While in mid-2020, there were only 30. It is perceptible that the pandemic has created an expansion of many online setups. And we can expect more growth by the end of this year.
According to the study conducted by Statistics Canada, the country managed to add 90,200 jobs in August this year. Besides, the unemployment rate dropped to 7.1 percent. This drop is significant, as it is the lowest level since the outburst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, still employers struggle to hire workers, and not all job vacancies are filled as there is a shortage of labor, especially in retail and food service.
So, in the backdrop of labor shortages, Amazon Canada does not want to encounter any unfilled job positions. Thus, raising wages is one way to attract workers.
Other major companies, such as McDonald’s, Walmart, and Costco, have also marched toward attracting more applicants by increasing their wages.
Amazon offers some other benefits to its employees, such as dental, vision, health, training, and education programs. It also provides access to childcare. In addition, the company is providing a $100 bonus to its employees who show their COVID-19 vaccination certificate.
