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 handout 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.