Amazon is recruiting 100,000 new staff in its fourth major US hiring spree of the pandemic

• Amazon is hiring 100,000 more staff across the US and Canada, the e-commerce giant announced on Monday — and opening 100 new sites in September alone.
• Amazon's total permanent workforce hit the 1 million mark in July, so the new recruits mark an expansion of roughly 10%.
• Amazon's net sales rose 40% year-on-year in the three months to June.

Amazon is hiring 100,000 more staff across the US and Canada — roughly a 10% expansion of its global workforce — following a sales surge during the pandemic, it announced Monday morning.

The e-commerce giant will also open 100 new operations sites in September alone. These include fulfilment centers where staff store goods and pack orders, delivery stations, and sorting centers.

Many of the roles will be at these new sites, it said, and include both full-time and part-time jobs.

Amazon has already opened more than 75 new sites and regional air hubs in the US and Canada in 2020. Last week, it opened a new fulfillment center in Beaumont, California with more than 1,000 full-time employees, and earlier in September it announced plans to add 10,000 new jobs to the expansion of its Bellevue, Washington office and retail site, on top of the 15,000 it announced in 2019.

Monday's announcement marks the company's fourth major hiring spree in the US this year. It began hiring for 100,000 new roles in March, 75,000 in April, and 33,000 earlier this month. This totals more than 300,000 new roles during the pandemic.

Amazon's workforce hits 1 million

The company had 876,800 permanent staff members as of June 30, a third more than at the same time in 2019. This has since risen to 1 million, the company's chief financial officer reported during a second-quarter earnings call in July.

Amazon's sales continue to grow during the pandemic. In the three months to June 30, its sales rose 40% year-on-year, to $88.9 billion.

Despite this growth, Amazon has come under fire in recent months. A report by the US Public Interest Research Group said the tech giant was not doing enough to prevent price gouging: Six months into the pandemic, Amazon sellers were spotted charging up to 14 times more than other retailers for essentials such as hand soap.

In April, Amazon workers accused the company of continuing to ship sex toys, video games, and dolls despite its pledges to prioritize essential goods in the early stages of the pandemic. Staff told Business Insider they were putting their lives at risk to fulfill these orders.