Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has pledged to create 15,000 new full-time jobs across Europe by the end of 2017. Amazon said in its statement, “These employees will be working on global customer innovations like Alexa, Prime Air, Prime Video, cloud computing and more.” Amazon also said that it will be “offering hundreds of apprenticeship opportunities in engineering, logistics and warehousing roles in fulfilment centers across the country.”
The company said it will be filling positions ranging from seasoned engineers to entry-level jobs. Some of the professional hires will be housed in Amazon’s new head office in the Principal Place development in Shoreditch. Approximately 1,500 software developers, engineers and technicians will also be hired.
In recent years, Amazon has committed a lot of resources to expanding its European operations. The company currently has 100 offices, fulfillment centers, and Amazon Web Services data centers in Europe. Xavier Garambois, vice president of Amazon EU Retail said in a statement, “We continue to invest heavily across Europe in fulfillment, customer service, cloud technology, research and development, machine learning, advanced logistics, and much more. With these investments comes an ever-increasing number of new job opportunities.”
There are several ongoing investigations into Amazon that have been sponsored by the European Commission over antitrust allegations and taxes. The company has offered to eliminate certain controversial clauses from its eBook distribution contracts to please the European Commission. In that case, the company could be assessed a fine that could amount to 10 percent of the firm’s annual revenue. An update on European Commission’s investigations into Amazon is expected in the coming months.
Amazon is currently in the process of a major global expansion. New fulfillment centers are slated to open in the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain. The company also recently announced that it’s planning to increase its U.S. workforce by 55 percent by the middle of next year. That would bring the number of Americans employed by Amazon to 280,000.
