AMAZON HIRING 1,500 AT THORNTON FACILITY
Online retail giant expects its benefits package to entice applicants
The country’s largest online retailer’s distribution center is in need of pickers, packers and other workers who will get benefits from Day 1.
Amazon has put out an order out for 1,500 workers to staff a new fulfillment center opening in Thornton this fall. But given metro Denver’s super-low unemployment rate of 2.3 percent, can the local economy deliver?
The country’s largest online retailer, which just hosted its Prime Day event, is about to find out.
“We are hiring quickly to open later this summer,” said Lauren Lynch, a spokeswoman for the online retailer. The new wave of hires will more than double the 1,300 people the Seattle-based company now employs at two facilities in Aurora.
Amazon is looking for pickers, packers and distribution workers, along with managers and a smaller number of support staff in areas like quality control, information technology and human resources.
The basic job of putting items into boxes for shipping starts at $12 an hour, with higher pay based on experience. Lynch emphasized that after a few months, workers will receive wage increases.
“With everything taken into account, Amazon wages are 30 percent more than traditional retail roles, and they include full benefits from Day 1,” she said.
The company can adjust the starting wage if it proves too low, she said. But Amazon is counting on its benefits package, which starts on an employee’s first day, to set it apart.
The company provides medical coverage, including dental and vision, and up to 20-weeks of paid parental leave. It also provides performance-based bonuses, a 401(k) plan and company stock awards.
“Any employer that is offering health care will instantly have a leg up. That seems to be one of the primary concerns for job seekers,” said Kyle Kensing, an online content editor at San Diego-based Career-Cast, which track labor market trends.
Amazon also realizes that not everyone it hires wants to stay long-term. Its Career
Choice program pre-pays 95 percent of the tuition for courses in fields that are in demand, areas like IT programming, radiology, nursing, etc. The company is also known for providing “pay to quit” bonuses to more tenured workers who want to move on.
The Thornton facility, at 855,000 square feet and four-levels, is state-of-the-art. Workers will stand at stations, picking items to ship from trays brought to them by robots that roam the massive warehouse floor.
The robotic facility, near I-25 and 144th Avenue, will distribute small- and mediumsized items and should allow for quicker delivery of orders in the metro area.
A 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center in Aurora that opened last September employs 1,000 workers. It distributes larger items, like canoes, bikes and area rugs. Workers there use small vehicles to drive to and pick up items.
Amazon hired 900 workers in a little over a month last August and September. The unemployment rate was slightly higher then, 2.7 percent versus 2.3 percent in May, when 37,800 people were actively looking for work in metro Denver.
Amazon also offered higher starting pay last year, $12.50 an hour. The $12 a hour wage now offered isn’t too much more than the state minimum of $10.20 an hour.
But Amazon should be able to draw workers from positions paying a similar wage with more limited benefits, Kensing predicts.
That said, Amazon’s reputation as an employer took a hit in April after author James Bloodworth went undercover at a warehouse in England. He found employees so fearful of missing productivity targets that they relieved themselves in bottles rather than running to distant bathrooms. Amazon disputed the allegations Bloodworth raised and said it provides a safe and positive workplace.
Lynch said the new distribution facility will make it easier for merchants in the area who fulfill orders through Amazon to get their products to market. It also should speed up how long it takes Amazon orders made locally to get delivered.
“Colorado is a big deal,” she said of the new facility.
Those interested in learning more about jobs at the Thornton fulfillment center can visit www.amazon.com/denverjobs. Amazon is also hosting a job fair at 11860 Pecos St. Suite 2200 in Westminster from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. through this Friday.