Amazon UK to create 1,000 UK jobs

The online retailer’s UK workforce now totalled about 15,500 – almost 30% of which had been added this year.

Head of Amazon UK operations Doug Gurr said: “We are creating thousands of new jobs to continue to deliver the experience our customers know and love during the festive season and beyond. ​

‘Hiring for all types of roles’​

“We are hiring for all types of roles from software engineers, computer programmers and corporate managers in our R&D ​[research and development] centres and head office, to operations managers, engineers, service technicians, HR ​[human resources] roles and order fulfilment roles in our fulfilment centres.”​

Amazon’s recruitment plan offered rare good business news, amid the financial gloom caused by Britain’s Brexit vote. The vote to leave the EU caused sterling to plummet to a 30-year low earlier this week.

Adding to Amazon’s optimistic perspective, the firm said it detected no early signs of sales dropping after the crucial vote.

Gurr said: “Our sales are in line with expectations. It’s business as usual as far as we are concerned. We don’t know what the impact ​[of Brexit] will be. ​

‘Keeping our heads down’​

“As far as we’re concerned right now, we’re keeping our heads down and continuing to do what we do. We’ll deal with whatever situation arises.” ​

The latest recruitment drive followed Amazon UK’s announcement that it had created 2,500 permanent new jobs​ in January 2016, as part of a European expansion plan.

The company also announced a deal​ with food supplier Morrisons in February 2016. The supply agreement between the two companies allows Morrisons’ products to be available for home delivery through the Amazon Prime Now service.

Alongside the new recruitment drive, Gurr said Prime Now was “rolling out fast”​ and the company was “very pleased with the progress we’ve made”​.

Around 74,000 UK jobs are supported by third party sellers on Amazon Marketplace. Over the past year, the number of sellers with a turnover of more than £1M has increased by 20%, according to BBC News​​.