Amazon needs 100,000 more workers to satisfy demand as people have to stay at and home shopping rockets due to the Coronavirus

By Tony Winterburn • Published: 17 Mar 2020 • 9:29

AMERICAN ONLINE RETAIL GIANT AMAZON SAID THIS WEEKEND THAT AN UNPRECEDENTED SURGE IN ORDERS WAS PUTTING ITS WORLDWIDE OPERATIONS UNDER PRESSURE. THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC HAS FORCED PEOPLE TO STAY AT HOME AND AMAZON ARE HIRING THOUSANDS MORE WORKERS TO TRY AND COPE WITH THE DEMAND.

Amazon said this weekend that a surge of orders was putting its operations under pressure, and warned shoppers it could take longer than the usual two days to receive packages.

AMAZON HIRING STAFF — Amazon says it will hire 100,000 extra staff Ecommerce giant will also raise hourly wages as it tries to keep pace with coronavirus demand

It also said it was sold out of many household cleaning supplies and was working to get more in stock.

Last week, Amazon changed its time-off policy for hourly workers, telling them they could take as much time off as they wanted in March, although they would only be paid if they had earned time off.

Amazon also said it would pay hourly workers for up to two weeks if they contracted the virus or needed to be quarantined.

The Seattle-based company said the new job openings are for a mix of full-time and part-time positions and include delivery drivers and warehouse workers, who pack and ship orders to shoppers.

Amazon is already the second-largest US-based employer behind Walmart, with nearly 800,000 workers worldwide.