Amazon has announced the company is creating more than 4,000 new permanent roles across the UK, bringing its permanent workforce to 75,000. This means Amazon will have created 40,000 new jobs in the UK in the past three years. Amazon has invested billions1 of pounds across the UK, enabling it to be one of the UK’s most significant job creators in recent years, and is set be one of the ten largest private sector employers in the UK2.
In addition to Amazon’s direct employment, the company’s operations are estimated to support more than 410,000 additional jobs. There are now more than 85,000 British small and medium-sized businesses which sell on Amazon, supporting 250,000 jobs across the UK3, and more than 160,000 jobs supported in Amazon’s supply chain, according to research by an independent economic consultancy, Keystone.
The company’s new roles are spread across the country, and include new fulfilment centres set to open in Wakefield and Knowsley. Amazon employs people in all parts of the UK, including in many communities identified as needing further investment in the Government’s “levelling up” agenda, such as Bolton, Swansea and Gateshead. Amazon is also creating new jobs at its Fresh Stores using “Just Walk Out” technology with 19 now open across the UK, including the first outside London in Sevenoaks, Kent.
People join us not just for the wide variety of roles we offer, great pay and benefits, but for the career development opportunities we provide
The jobs announced today include roles in corporate and technology functions in Amazon and Amazon Web Services (AWS), including software development, product management, and engineering; as well as jobs in the operations teams in fulfilment centres, sort centres and delivery stations. In addition to Amazon’s permanent employees, the company previously announced the creation of 1,500 new apprenticeships in 2022, across 40 different schemes.
Amazon is proud to be an employer that welcomes people back to the workforce after unemployment, and provides a first job for many, with excellent career growth opportunities. In the first half of 2022, 56% of new hires in the operations division joined Amazon from previous unemployment or directly from education.
According to new starters in 2022, pay was the top reason for joining Amazon with 98% of new joiners saying it was important to their decision to join the company. Amazon pays a minimum of between £10 and £11.10 per hour in the UK, depending on the location, more than the UK’s National Living Wage, and the Real Living Wage. The joint second preferred reasons were the convenient locations where people worked and Amazon’s benefits packages, which 95% of new joiners said was important to their decision. Amazon’s benefits package includes private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection, and an employee discount – which combined are worth more than £700 annually – as well as a company pension plan.
“We’re continuing to invest in talent right across the UK, from apprentices in Swansea to data scientists in Edinburgh. People join us not just for the wide variety of roles, great pay and benefits, but for the career development opportunities we provide,” said John Boumphrey, Amazon UK Country Manager.
“Applicants recognise we are an employer that offers great development potential, and we are proud to have so many employees growing and taking the opportunity to learn new skills that will create paths to new jobs at Amazon and beyond.”
Training and skills development opportunities are a key priority for new joiners to Amazon and so far this year more than 2,300 employees enrolled in the Career Choice programme, which provides funding for Amazon employees to gain new skills and qualifications. These include 828 employees training to drive HGVs (the most popular course), 351 training to work in computer support and 422 training for a role in HR.
Participants include Patrick from London, who has studied Human Resources with the programme: “Career Choice has been amazing. It has given me the chance to upgrade myself, and advance further in my career.”
Idnan, another participant from the East Midlands, is studying Accountancy: “Career Choice has been a great experience. I worked in finance roles before joining Amazon, but creating access to courses such as mine has opened many doors for me.”
Find out more about Amazon’s Career Choice programme.
1 Amazon’s latest published UK economic impact and investment figures are published here, showing £32bn invested between 2010 and 2020.
2 According to a ranking produced by PwC, using publicly available data, Amazon’s 75,000 employees are expected to place the company in the top ten largest private sector employers in the UK in 2022.
3 According to an internal survey of businesses selling on Amazon.
