USA Today – January 15, 2017
by Jon Swartz
SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon may have raised the bar very high on jobs-creation ambitions in tech — it pledged Thursday to add 100,000 full-time jobs in the USA by mid-2018.
But at what cost?
The e-commerce behemoth, which employs 306,800 in full- and part-time jobs worldwide, said the positions are across all skill and experience levels. Most will be low-paying jobs at fulfillment centers, including ones under construction in California, Florida, New Jersey and Texas. …
The impact is felt far beyond Amazon, labor and retail experts said. The breakneck growth of Amazon is “upending” the retail industry, which accounts for one out of every eight jobs in the USA, says Stacy Mitchell, co-author of a recent report that concluded Amazon eliminated about 149,000 more jobs in retail than it has created in its warehouses.
“Amazon pays its warehouse employees 15% less on average than the prevailing wage of other warehouse workers in the same region, and it is experimenting widely with ways, such as temporary and on-demand employment, to erode job security,” Mitchell says.
