Amazon Hired 100,000 People Last Month. Now It’s Hiring Another 75,000

Amazon announced today that is has already filled the 100,000 new positions that it opened less than a month ago. Say what you will about the company: Amazon knows how to move fast.

Now, Amazon is hiring another 75,000.

And, it’s increased its initial $350 million investment in extra staffing to over $500 million.

“Today, we are proud to announce that our original 100,000 jobs pledge is filled and those new employees are working at sites across the U.S. helping to serve customers,” Amazon announced on its blog today. “We continue to see increased demand as our teams support their communities, and are going to continue to hire, creating an additional 75,000 jobs to help serve customers during this unprecedented time.”

That’s unprecedented speed, and it comes at a good time for the also unprecedented 16.8 million people who have joined the unemployment ranks in the last three weeks.

The entire country is virtually shut down, and jobs in people-service areas that can’t be done remotely have been laid off in massive numbers: 6.87 million in the week ending March 28; 6.61 million in the week ending April 4.

“Keep in mind that the previous record for unemployment claims was 695,000 in October 1982 and the highest number during the Great Recession was 665,000 in March 2009,” Forbes senior contributor Chuck Jones recently wrote.

That means Amazon has plenty of choice.

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“We know many people have been economically impacted as jobs in areas like hospitality, restaurants, and travel are lost or furloughed as part of this crisis and we welcome anyone out of work to join us at Amazon until things return to normal and their past employer is able to bring them back,” Amazon said.

That last part is important.

While the entire country is suffering, Amazon included, the company is also getting more and more entrenched as an essential service. Walmart is also seeing record highs in grocery app downloads, so it’s growing as well, and other e-commerce vendors are seeing fast growth too.

But Amazon is particularly well set up to take advantage of long-term social distancing policies.

One big question: taking care of those workers. The company announced recently that it was setting up its own Coronavirus testing lab to address health concerns of people working in its facilities.

And: will small local businesses that lost millions of workers to shutdowns and #stayathome be able to re-open, and be able to afford to re-hire their laid-off staff?