Amazon announced plans Tuesday to hire 3,500 corporate employees in tech hubs across the country, including Denver, Dallas, San Diego, Phoenix, Detroit, and New York City.
While many of the company's tech employees are still working remotely, the move marks a commitment to growing the footprint of office space despite the coronavirus pandemic.
"Right now, we're seeing really significant demand for technical innovation," said Ardine Williams, VP of workforce development at Amazon. "What better way to give back to the communities in which we're a part than to create jobs in those tech hubs?"
The e-commerce giant has hired 175,000 workers since the beginning of the pandemic, many of whom are working in warehouses or on the frontline to deliver packages.
This latest bout of hiring, however, will focus on highly-skilled tech workers who will help build up the company's technology infrastructure.
"As we move to more remote work, the demands on IT infrastructure, on applications, on technical solutions has increased as well," Williams said.
Williams added that tapping into new talent pools is another goal of the hiring push.
"It's still very competitive in the tech market," she said. "There was a shortage of software development engineers, solution architects, technical programming editors before the pandemic. Many of those skills are still in very high demand, and we are continuing to work hard to recruit that talent."
Out of the 3,500 new jobs, 2,000 will be based in New York City at the former Lord & Taylor flagship department store in Manhattan.
The company is also investing $1.4 billion in 900,000 square feet of new office space across the six cities — though 650,000 square feet will be in New York City alone.
"As the second-largest employer in the United States, we believe that we have a role to play in creating good jobs," Williams said.
Big tech earnings take center stage as investors digest results from Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple, with insights from Gil Luria of D.A. Davidson
Disney content has gone dark on YouTube TV, leaving subscribers of the Google-owned live streaming platform without access to major networks like ESPN and ABC. That’s because the companies have failed to reach a new licensing deal to keep Disney channels on YouTube TV. Depending on how long it lasts, the dispute could particularly impact coverage of U.S. college football matchups over the weekend — on top of other news and entertainment disruptions that have already arrived. In the meantime, YouTube TV subscribers who want to watch Disney channels could have little choice other than turning to the company’s own platforms, which come with their own price tags.
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
Universal Music Group and AI platform Udio have settled a copyright lawsuit and will collaborate on a new music creation and streaming platform. The companies announced on Wednesday that they reached a compensatory legal settlement and new licensing agreements. These agreements aim to provide more revenue opportunities for Universal's artists and songwriters. The rise of AI song generation tools like Udio has disrupted the music streaming industry, leading to accusations from record labels. This deal marks the first since Universal and others sued Udio and Suno last year. Financial terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.
