Amazon creates another 1,000 jobs in Britain

Amazon’s impressive growth is continuing with new jobs being created in its UK distribution centres.

Amazon has invested more than £1 billion so far in making its operations in the UK a success. Both here and worldwide, it’s become such a significant part of the retail landscape that it’s hard to imagine shopping without it – and with Christmas looming on the horizon, it’s guaranteed to see a huge spike in demand.

However, Amazon is also planning for longer term growth in the coming months.

News has emerged that the company plans to create another 1,000 permanent jobs in its eight UK distribution centres on top of the 6,000 who already work in the facilities.

“Over the past two years, we have added well in excess of 2,000 new employees to our workforce and we are delighted to be able to add a further 1,000 to that number over the coming months,” said John Tagawa, Amazon’s director of UK operations.

“We have continued to focus day in, day out on providing the very best shopping experience for our customers and as we see greater demand, we are able to rapidly grow our talented team across the UK.”

The eight “fulfilment” centres, as Amazon calls them, are all based away from big cities and make a sizeable contribution to the local economy.

They include Hemel Hempstead, Milton Keynes and Peterborough as well as Gourock, Doncaster, Dunfermline, Rugeley and Swansea Bay.

But for Amazon, it’s a sign that more and more customers are getting more use from Amazon’s e-commerce site, which competes only with eBay in the West as an e-commerce giant. In fact, former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said that Amazon is Google’s biggest search rival.

For many consumers, it seems that Amazon is now the first resort to find the items they need, and that trend is only likely to continue. It could even stretch into the high street, if its plans to open a store in New York City prove to be successful. Either way, it’s likely to become an even bigger part of the retail landscape.