Christmas is already on the horizon for Amazon.
The tech giant, among the biggest players in the industrial real estate market, aims to open 100 U.S. facilities this month and is gearing up to hire 125,000 warehouse workers ahead of the busy holiday season, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The company’s starting wage of $15 an hour has drawn criticism in the past. Yet Amazon says minimum wages have risen to an average of $18 an hour across the nation and as high as $22.50 in some locations.
Amazon employs more than 950,000 people in the U.S. and has been swallowing more warehouse space as the pandemic drives demand for online shopping, increasing its need to store, sort and ship products. The company operates more than 930 facilities in the country, according to MWPVL International.
Two weeks ago, Amazon paid $84.5 million for a 133-acre site in Sunrise, Florida. It plans to build a fulfillment center at the site, one of several in South Florida either already in place or under development. Amazon leased about 3 million square feet in South Florida in 2020, according to Newmark.
Last month, the company added another 200,000 square feet in Southern California, leasing a building in Moorpark that will become a last-mile distribution center, an increasing priority for the company as it tries deliver to customers as quickly as possible.
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[WSJ] — Holden Walter-Warner