By Joseph Pisani and Michelle Chapman
Amazon wants to hire 125,000 delivery and warehouse workers and said Tuesday that it is paying new hires an average of $18 an hour in a tight job market as more people shop online.
Competition for hourly workers has become fierce, and many companies are offering higher pay, sign-on bonuses and other incentives. Last week, package delivery company UPS promised to hand out job offers in 30 minutes after candidates apply for many of the 100,000 holiday workers it plans to hire.
In an interview early Tuesday, Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen told CNBC that the national grocery chain has 20,000 positions it is struggling to fill.
“We’re aggressively hiring anywhere we can,” McMullen said. “One of the biggest constraints we have right now is finding talented people.”
Amazon’s starting pay is still $15 per hour, but with labor markets growing so tight in regions of the country, the company said new hires could make as much as $22.50 an hour. It's also paying sign-on bonuses of $3,000 in some places.
When it began paying at least $15 an hour in 2018, Amazon was one of the first major companies to do so. But others have caught up. Target and Best Buy pay $15 an hour, too. Costco pays $16 an hour. Now, Amazon is finding it has to offer more.
Last week, it said it would pay the full college tuition for hourly workers starting in January. Workers will be eligible 90 days after they’ve started work. Amazon said it’ll fund tuition at hundreds of partnering schools, but didn’t name them.
Companies are having a difficult time finding workers even though the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits reach pandemic lows. Rising infections with the arrival of the delta variant appear partially to blame.
America’s employers added just 235,000 jobs in August, a surprisingly weak gain after two months of robust hiring and the clearest sign to date that the delta variant’s spread has discouraged economic activity, and potentially job seekers.
More people have shifted from stores to online shopping over the past year during the pandemic, and retailers have adjusted hiring to accommodate those patterns. Amazon, which is now the nation’s second-largest private employer, hired 500,000 people last year alone.
To keep up with the surge in online ordering, Amazon said that it has opened more than 250 new warehouses, airport hubs and other delivery facilities this year. It plans to open another 100 this month alone.
The company said most of its job openings are in 18 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
Nvidia reported a 56% increase in second-quarter revenue and a 59% rise in net income compared to a year ago.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos claims audiences don't want to watch Netflix movies in theaters, but that seems not to be the case recently.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
