Online retailer Amazon has said it will create more than 5,000 jobs in Britain this year.

At least 2,000 of those had actually been announced before but the news is an indication that the company will continue to invest there despite the decision to leave the European Union.

The additional positions will take its permanent workforce in the UK to more than 24,000.

“These new job opportunities are for people with all types of experience, education and skill levels, from software developers, engineers and technicians, to those seeking entry-level positions and on-the-job training,” it said in a statement.

Amazon’s new head office in London will have capacity for more than 5,000 people by the end of the year, the firm said.

It joins other technology giants – such as Google and Apple – that have increased their commitment to Britain in the last year. The concentration of tech expertise in London has been cited by many firms as an attraction.

European expansion

Amazon said the hiring plans for Britain are on top of an extra 10,000 full-time posts to be created in continental Europe this year including 1,500 in France where it already has more than 4,000 workers.

Investing in Europe – 15,000 new full-time jobs to be created in 2017 #AmazonJobshttps://t.co/2pts7J8QShpic.twitter.com/F7H9o2a2d0 — AmazonNewsEU (@AmazonNewsEU) February 20, 2017

The company plans to open its fifth logistics center in Poland this year, it said on Monday, seeking to benefit from the country’s relatively low wages and proximity to the large German market.

The decision adds to a trend of multinational companies opening shared services and logistics centres in the European Union’s largest eastern member to tap its relatively large and skilled workforce.

Amazon currently employs over 7,000 people on regular job contracts in its three centres in western Poland, close to the border with Germany.

Last year, it announced the opening of another centre in the north-western city of Szczecin, also near the German border.

The new logistics centre in Poland could also help insulate Amazon’s business from the risk of frequent strikes by its workers in neighbouring Germany.

German trade unions have organised strikes at Amazon since 2013 to press demands for the retailer to raise pay for warehouse workers in accordance with collective bargaining agreements in Germany.

Amazon also recently said it sould hire an additional 100,000 full-time workers in the United States, which led to the strange situation of President Donald Trump claiming credit for job creation by a company he has criticised in the past as a tax dodger.</s>American tech giant Amazon promised to create 15,000 new full-time jobs across Europe by the end of the year. The move will see the Seattle-based company increase its European workforce by approximately 30 percent as the firm's goal is to employ 65,000 Europeans by the end of 2017. Apart from adding new jobs to numerous European countries, the company's divisions like Amazon Web Services, Marketplace, and Kindle Direct Publishing will continue generating thousands of opportunities for Europeans looking to start new businesses, Amazon revealed in a press release published on Monday.

While the Seattle-based tech giant has already been committing a lot of resources to expanding its European operations and adding new jobs to the Old Continent in recent years, industry watchers are interpreting the company's latest move as a direct response to several ongoing investigations into Amazon sponsored by the European Commission. The online retailer is currently being investigated over antitrust allegations and taxes. The company already tried to make amends with the European Commission on one antitrust front by offering to eliminate certain controversial clauses from its eBook distribution contracts in exchange for avoiding a fine that could amount to 10 percent of the firm's annual revenue. While there's still no update on that situation, Amazon could now be highlighting its positive impact on the European economy in an effort to alleviate any potential fines that the European antitrust watchdog may be preparing to issue.

However, it's also possible that the company's recent announcement has nothing to do with any ongoing probe into its European businesses as Amazon is currently in the process of a major global expansion. The Seattle-based tech giant recently announced that it's planning to strengthen its U.S. workforce by 55 percent over the next year and a half as the company is looking to employ 280,000 Americans in total by mid-2018. On the other hand, if Amazon is truly trying to win some goodwill from the European regulators by highlighting its expansion efforts on the Old Continent, that strategy could prove to be effective seeing how many members of the European Union are currently struggling with driving job growth. Regardless, an update on European Commission's investigations into Amazon is expected to follow in the coming months.</s>Online retailer is set to create more than 5,000 jobs in this year, the company said on Monday, boosting its investment in the country once more even as it prepares to leave the European Union.



Amazon, along with other tech giants such as and Apple, has increased its commitment to in the last year, saying Britain’s referendum decision to leave the EU last June did not affect its investment plans. The plans to add over 5,000 jobs in 2017 is a record for in Britain, although at least 2,000 of the jobs had been previously announced. The moves would take its permanent workforce in the country to 24,000. Doug Gurr, UK country manager at Amazon, said the jobs would provide “even faster delivery, more selection and better value” for British customers. Amazon’s new head office in London will have capacity for more than 5,000 people by the end of the year, the firm said.</s>Amazon has announced it will create more than 5,000 jobs in Britain by the end of the year.

The online retail giant, which already employs 19,000 people in the UK, unveiled the investment as it gears up to open a new head office in London.

The show of confidence in Britain’s thriving technology sector comes after Google, Apple and Facebook have all made their own commitments to the UK.

And it throws further cold water on warnings from Remainers that global firms would shun the UK following its vote to leave the EU.

Google, which employs 4,000 people in the UK, has commissioned a new ten-storey building with 650,000 sq ft of floor space, equivalent to more than ten football pitches. And Apple is moving to the redeveloped Battersea power station.

Doug Gurr, UK country manager for Amazon, said the jobs would include test and software engineers as well as corporate managers

‘We are creating thousands of new UK jobs, including hundreds of apprenticeship opportunities, as we continue to innovate for our customers and provide them with even faster delivery, more selection and better value,’ he said.

Amazon has been ramping up the battle against traditional retailers by opening more warehouses, enabling it to offer one-hour delivery in places. The Seattle-based company has three opening later this year.

The investment in the UK comes as Amazon ramps up its footprint across Europe, where it plans to create 15,000 jobs by the end of the year.</s>US tech and retail giant Amazon on Monday said it would create 5,000 British jobs this year, in a show of confidence in the UK economy ahead of Brexit.

"Amazon UK today announced plans to create more than 5,000 full-time jobs this year, taking the company's total UK workforce to over 24,000," a statement said.

"These new job opportunities are for people with all types of experience, education and skill levels, from software developers, engineers and technicians, to those seeking entry-level positions and on-the-job training," it added.

Amazon separately said it was creating 1,500 positions in France under plans to have 15,000 new posts across Europe in 2017.

The company is meanwhile in the process of providing 100,000 new positions in the United States by the middle of next year.</s>Amazon said today it plans to increase its European workforce by more than 30 percent this year as the company seeks to highlight its positive economic impact amid several ongoing EU investigations.

In a press release, the company said that in 2016 it added 10,000 full-time jobs in Europe, bringing its total employment base here to 50,000. In 2017, the company said it will be adding another 15,000 full-time jobs.

“We continue to invest heavily across Europe in fulfillment, customer service, cloud technology, research and development, machine learning, advanced logistics, and much more,” said Xavier Garambois, vice president of Amazon EU Retail in a statement. “With these investments comes an ever-increasing number of new job opportunities.”

The company said it will be hiring for positions ranging from seasoned engineers to entry-level. The company has 100 offices, fulfillment centers, and Amazon Web Services data centers in Europe. Amazon noted that “many of the new positions” would be in new fulfillment centers slated to open in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the UK some time this year.

The jobs are the result of the company’s growing market influence in Europe. But the decision to highlight them lets the company remind regulators in Europe, where job growth and economies remain weak, that putting any clamps on the company could imperil that growth.

Currently, the global giant has found itself in the crosshairs of European Commission regulators over issues like taxes, ecommerce competition, and ebook distribution deals. And, in general, there is a fear across Europe that U.S. tech companies wield too much economic control over the continent’s digital sphere.

It’s also clear that Amazon is on a monster-size hiring binge. Last month, the company announced it would increase its U.S. headcount by 55 percent over the next 18 months to 280,000 employees.</s>Automated systems are part of our everyday life workforce, from manufacturing to self-checkouts in a supermarket. The implementation of said systems replaces human workforce members, generating worries each time new technologies are introduced.

Recently Amazon introduced its new convenience store “Amazon Go,” which is said to open early this year in Seattle, Washington. This store promises to provide shoppers with a simple shopping experience without lines, check-outs or registers, all thanks to machine learning, computer vision and artificial intelligence according to Amazon.

As these new technologies are introduced, questions and fears about the future of current workers arise. Since the Industrial Revolution people have worried about losing jobs to machines, however, experts argue that new technologies actually create new employment opportunities.

Automation systems do cause the loss of jobs in the short term, but not in the long term, according to University of Nebraska at Omaha Instructor of Business Administration Management Christopher B.R. Diller.

“In the long term they’re going to end up creating new, different opportunities for the workforce.” Diller said.</s>"These new job opportunities are for people with all types of experience, education and skill levels, from software developers, engineers and technicians, to those seeking entry-level positions and on-the-job training," an Amazon statement said.

They will be at a new distribution centre in Boves in the northern Somme region, the company offices in Clichy-sous-Bois and new datacentres in the Paris suburbs.

"The turnover reached by French companies using Amazon.fr marketplace has exceeded 200 million euros in 2016," said Frédéric Duval, CEO for Amazon France.

But France is not the only country targeted by the US giant.

It plans to create 15,000 new posts across Europe in 2017.

And, in a show of confidence in the British economy ahead of Brexit, 5,000 of them will be in the UK, taking the company's total workforce there to over 24,000.

The company is also in the process of creating 100,000 new positions in the United States by the middle of next year.</s>Amazon will create more than 5,000 full-time jobs in the UK this year, the company announced on Friday (20 February).

These new job opportunities are for software developers, engineers and technicians,as well as for those looking for entry-level positions and on-the-job training. The latest recruitment will take the company's UK workforce to over 24,000.

In addition to full-time jobs, the e-commerce giant will provide opportunities to entrepreneurs and individuals who want to start their business through programmes such as Amazon Marketplace, Amazon Logistics and Amazon Flex.

The new roles will be created at the UK head office in London, customer service centre in Edinburgh, photography studio in Shoreditch, AWS Europe (London) region office, fulfillment centres across the UK, including three new sites in Tilbury, Doncaster and Daventry, and development centres in Cambridge, Edinburgh and London. The company said more than 1,500 roles will be at these development centres and AWS.

Doug Gurr, UK country manager for Amazon, in a statement on 20 February, said: "We are creating thousands of new UK jobs including hundreds of apprenticeship opportunities as we continue to innovate for our customers and provide them with even faster delivery, more selection and better value.

"We are hiring for all types of roles from flight test engineers, software engineers and corporate managers in our development centres and head office, to operations managers, supervisors, engineers, service technicians, HR roles and order fulfillment roles in our fulfilment centres."

Amazon also announced a new apprenticeship programme to offer opportunities in engineering, logistics and warehousing at its fulfillment centres across the UK. Additionally, the company has its Career Choice programme to help train fulfillment centre employees for jobs at Amazon and other companies. More than 2,000 employees across Europe have participated in this programme for courses such as nursing, personal training and engineering.

The Amazon Flex delivery programme is also offering hundreds of individuals the opportunity to work and earn up to £15 ($19) per hour. Amazon Logistics is providing opportunities for small businesses to build and grow by delivering parcels for Amazon.

"Amazon is committed to creating opportunities with choice and flexibility that appeal to the widest range of individuals, from those that want a full working week to those that just want to work for a few hours," said Roy Perticucci, vice president for Europe Customer Fulfilment at Amazon.</s>iStock(LONDON) — Amazon will add 5,000 new full-time jobs in the U.K. in 2017.

According to the BBC, the retail giant is looking to fill a range of positions including software developers and warehouse staff.

The jobs will be housed in Amazon’s UK headquarters in London and in the customer service center in Edinburgh. Additionally, Amazon is opening three new fulfillment centers across the United Kingdom.

Amazon’s business is booming. The company rolled out the Amazon Fresh, grocery service last summer before its was unveiled in the U.S.

More expansion for the company could be coming soon. The BBC reports, Amazon is close to launching its own-brand fashion label.

The U.K. is Amazon’s third largest market in the world behind the U.S. and Germany.
Seattle-based Amazon.com says it will create 15,000 new full-time jobs across Europe by the end of 2017, increasing its European workforce by approximately 30 percent.