Amazon to hire 1,500 in Orlando, part of 100,000 hiring plan
Amazon plans to open a new fulfillment center in Orlando, which will create 1,500 new full-time jobs with benefits.
The 850,000-plus square-foot facility is scheduled to open next year, the Seattle-based company announced Monday.
The announcement comes after the e-commerce giant in January pledged to create over 100,000 full-time U.S. jobs, mostly in fulfillment centers. This year, it's already announced 14 new fulfillment centers around the country, three of which are in Florida, representing 14,000 new jobs in total.
Fulfillment center workers will "pick, pack and ship small items to customers like books, electronics or consumer goods," Amazon said in a statement.
Amazon opened its first fulfillment center in Florida in 2013 and according to the corporate Web site, there are more than 70 fulfillment centers in the United States. With the Orlando location, Florida now has over 9,000 employees in the state.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Amazon to Central Florida, and look forward to this legendary innovator becoming a part of our community,” said Orange County, Fla., Mayor Teresa Jacobs.
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Analysts say the rapid increase in the number of fulfillment centers nationwide is part of Amazon's ongoing pursuit to provide the shortest wait times for products. For Amazon Prime members, that's two-day, one-day or same-day delivery. With more inventory closer to where consumers are located, shipping distances become shorter. Sending products in two days or less becomes faster and cheaper.
"Amazon is doing this to get inventory closer to the customer," said David Closs, a professor at the University of Michigan who studies supply-chain management. "To provide customer service in one or two days, they need to have many more sites, and that's what they're doing."
Long term, analysts said, more fulfillment centers give Amazon a way to provide customers the convenience of online shopping with the immediacy of going to a physical store.
Forty-three percent of all online commerce goes through Amazon, the digital commerce research firm Slice Intelligence found. And Prime membership is exploding. From 2015 to 2016, membership increased 35%, according to research from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP).
"We're moving toward a world where Amazon's core competency is fulfillment and logistics," said Forrester Amazon analyst Brendan Witcher. "The ability to get a product to a customer anywhere at anytime is what's going to be their competitive advantage."
Follow Paste BN reporters Zlati Meyer and Rachel Sandler on Twitter: @ZlatiMeyer and @rachsandl