US tech giant Amazon plans on creating over 5,000 new jobs in the UK this year, boosting its total UK workforce to 24,000 by the end of 2017.
The new jobs will be split across its new head office in London (opening later this year), three new fulfilment centres in Tilbury, Doncaster and Daventry, and development centres across the country where technology for its voice assistant Alexa, package-delivering drones and Prime Video are being worked on.
Doug Gurr, Amazon’s UK country manager, was quoted by Sky News as saying:
“We are creating thousands of new UK jobs including hundreds of apprenticeship opportunities as we continue to innovate for our customers and provide them with even faster delivery, more selection and better value.”
He added:
“We are hiring for all types of roles from flight-test engineers, software engineers and corporate managers in our development centres and head office, to operations managers, supervisors, engineers, service technicians, HR roles and order fulfilment roles in our fulfilment centres.”
London mayor Sadiq Khan welcomed the investment by Amazon. He was quoted by City A.M. as saying:
“Amazon’s commitment to London will deliver new jobs and growth for the economy and offers further proof of our status as a world-class destination for global technology businesses.”
“Home to some of the world’s top tech talent, London is Europe’s leading technology hub. Amazon’s continued growth in our city is another sign that London remains open to innovation, entrepreneurship and investment from all over the world.”