Amazon, the e-commerce giant, wants to recruit at least 50,000 people to man its warehouses spread across the United States. The possibility of laying hands on one of the positions drew aspirants from far and wide, and hundreds of them waited patiently in queue for their turn to bag one of the jobs on offer.
The on-site interviews conducted by Amazon were to provide Employment to 50,000 people across the country to cater to its expansion plans and in the course of the day, it made job offers on the spot at a dozen locations from different parts of the country.
In Baltimore, it has plans to add around 1,000 people to its existing strength of 4,000 plus. This is proof that human labor cannot be ignored even in a company like Amazon that relies on technology for survival. However, the need for experienced persons cannot be overlooked.
The fast changing scene
New Zealand Herald reports that, while Amazon is hiring, the same does not hold true for many retailers who are shutting their stores as e-commerce elbows its way in. The focus has shifted from shopping malls in the cities to warehouses on the outskirts of towns. Retail employment has traditionally been a face-to-face affair where there would be direct contact between the seller and the buyer, but that concept has made way for technology.
This takeover has impacted the job scenario.
Statistics reveal that while retail jobs are usually women-centric, when it comes to warehousing, the demand is there for men and they account for more than 70 percent of warehousing and storage workers. Moreover, such jobs are gradually moving out from cities to rural areas because of easy availability of land which is important from the point of view of the expansion of the storage facilities.
What is the future?
With more and more people opting for online shopping, e-commerce is expected to flourish. Such business has to cater to an inventory of thousands of products in its warehouses and a customer base that runs into millions. Therefore, it has to rely on automation to a large scale, and Amazon is no exception.
It has plans to induct drones to deliver its merchandise and has already set the ball rolling.
It has carried out trial delivery and has to, now, obtain approval from the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) and other agencies. It could face hurdles like restriction on the height that the drone can operate in, the proximity of delivery point to the nearest warehouse, mode of delivery like air dropping by parachute etcetera. Whatever it be, the employment of 50,000 people by Amazon will come as a big relief to labor economists because it will help to ease the growing unemployment in the country to some extent.
