Amazon expands in Bay State
Plans 2 new facilities
Amazon on Wednesday announced that it will open two new facilities in Massachusetts by the middle of next year.
A sort station will open in Northboro later this year, the company said, and a delivery station will open in East Taunton in the first half of 2021.
Those facilities will join two other sort stations that opened last month in Milford and Northboro, creating a total of more than 2,000 jobs that will pay at least $15 per hour, Amazon said.
The company refused to say how many of those jobs are full time or whether it had received tax incentives for those facilities. But that didn’t trouble Karen Chapman, president of the Corridor 9/495 Regional Chamber of Commerce, which includes Northboro.
“During a time when so many people lost their jobs due to COVID-19, this just helps with workforce development,” Chapman said. “It opens the door for a lot of people to get hired.”
The AMXL delivery station opening next year in East Taunton will handle large products such as televisions and couches and create about 100 new jobs that will pay at least $15 per hour, Amazon said.
The company said it has invested millions of dollars to provide a safe workplace by distributing masks and other personal protective equipment for employees and by implementing disinfectant spraying and temperature checks across its operations worldwide.
The two newly launched facilities in Milford and Northboro are currently hiring and offering sign-on bonuses of up to $2,000, Amazon said.
Employees will sort packages before they are transferred to a delivery station or last-mile delivery partner for final delivery to customers.
Since 2010, Amazon has created more than 15,500 jobs in Massachusetts and invested more than $6.2 billion across the state, including infrastructure and compensation, the company said.
Those investments have contributed an additional $5.3 billion to the state’s economy and have helped create 13,400 indirect jobs, including ones in construction, logistics and professional services, according to Amazon.
More than 34,500 independent authors and small to medium businesses in Massachusetts also are selling to customers in Amazon’s store, creating thousands more jobs across the state, it said.