Amazon to create more than 4,000 jobs in UK

Online retail giant Amazon has said it plans to create more than 4,000 jobs in the UK this year. The jobs will be permanent and bring the company's total UK staff to 75,000. Amazon says the move, which would include roles in new warehouses in Wakefield and Knowsley, would make it one of the UK's top ten private sector employers. The company created 25,000 UK jobs in 2021 as the Covid pandemic boosted a shift towards online shopping. Amazon also opened four new warehouses across the UK in 2021.
 
People were shopping more online before the pandemic, but lockdowns and Covid restrictions gave that a boost - including home deliveries of groceries bought online. Amazon's thousands of new UK roles will be split between warehouse work, corporate work in London and Manchester, and technology work in Edinburgh and Cambridge.
 
But the company has faced criticism in the past about working conditions for employees, and about its response to workers wanting to unionise to negotiate better pay and working conditions. The first Amazon employers' union was created in its Staten Island hub in New York in April 2022 after a hard-fought battle.
 
The company currently has warehouses it calls "fulfilment centres" in Bolton and Swansea, and says it will continue to create roles away from London and city centres. The online giant previously announced the creation of 1,500 new apprenticeships in 2022. The announcements come at a time when companies are jostling to hire staff, as the number of roles available outstrips the number of people available to fill them.