Amazon again passes on Connecticut

Online giant to send 3,000 jobs to Boston

As Amazon continues hiring for warehouse and delivery work in Connecticut — where it has become among the state’s largest corporate employers — the company has again hopscotched the state for the best-paying corporate jobs in favor of Massachusetts.

Amazon announced Tuesday morning plans to hire 3,000 to staff a new building in Boston’s burgeoning Seaport district, where General Electric moved its headquarters more than four years ago. The positions will support work for Amazon Web Services, the new Amazon Pharmacy, Alexa and other artificial intelligence work.

The Boston expansion will push the internet giant’s Massachusetts workforce to more than 20,000, with the company employing 8,500 people in Connecticut at last report at fulfillment centers in North Haven, Windsor, Wallingford and several smaller dispatch warehouses in Stratford, Danbury, Orange . and Cromwell among other locales.

Amazon has been on a historic hiring push as the COVID-19 pandemic prompts more people to order online, rather than put their health at risk while venturing to retail stores.

“We welcomed 250,000 permanent full-time and part-time employees just in (the third quarter) and have already added about 100,000 more in (October),” said Brian Olsavsky, chief financial officer of Amazon, speaking on a conference call last fall. “This has been a big year.”

Spokespeople for Gov. Ned Lamont did not immediately say whether Connecticut has continued discussions with Amazon about landing corporate jobs. The company presently has about 50 openings in the state, including several information technology development jobs in Milford with salaries listed in excess of $120,000.

Three years ago, Connecticut was unsuccessful in a long-shot bid to land the East Coast headquarters Amazon created alongside its historic corporate office in Seattle. The company ultimately chose Virginia after scotching an initial plan to create a dual headquarters there and in New York City.

Amazon’s board has multiple directors with Connecticut ties, most prominently former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, the Greenwich resident who oversaw the drafting of Lamont’s “Reopening Connecticut” guidelines last year. Also on the board: former Hewlett-Packard and Apple executive Jon Rubinstein, who had a short stint as co-CEO of the Westport-based hedge fund Bridgewater Associates; and Thomas Ryder, who led Readers Digest while commuting from New Canaan.

In a press release, Amazon’s head scientist indicated the company chose Boston for its latest expansion in part due to its access to engineers with expertise in software and artificial intelligence, as well as broader corporate roles covering finance and personnel.

The company already has 3,700 people working at what it calls its Boston Tech Hub, with a new building under construction in the Seaport that will house 2,000. The company did not respond immediately to a query Tuesday on whether it has any plans to add office space in suburban areas on the East Coast as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on worker attitudes toward commuting.