New York (AFP)

E-commerce giant Amazon, which has benefited from an explosion in demand for online orders since the start of the pandemic, announced on Monday the creation of 100,000 additional jobs in the United States and Canada.

These new hires are in addition to several large recruitment campaigns organized by the group in recent months to respond to the surge in activity.

Since the beginning of September alone, Amazon has said it plans to hire 33,000 new people in the United States in administrative and technical positions as well as 10,000 new people at its site in Bellevue, Washington.

The group of Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, also announced the hiring of 7,000 more people in the United Kingdom by the end of the year.

At the end of July, on the occasion of the publication of its results, Amazon had indicated that it had already created more than 175,000 jobs since March and was in the process of transforming 125,000 of them into permanent positions.

The company did not specify on Monday when it planned to create the 100,000 new positions, but stressed that the hiring process had already started.

While the unemployment rate remains high in the United States due to the pandemic but fell much more than expected in August, to 8.4%, the group offers a minimum wage of $ 15 an hour as well as a $ 1,000 hiring bonus in some cities.

The group also offers significant benefits in the United States, such as health insurance from day one, a retirement savings plan, up to 20 weeks of paid parental leave and training.

Many of these new jobs are for 100 new business sites - distribution centers, sorting, delivery branches - to be opened this month.

They are added to 75 new units already opened since the beginning of the year in the United States and Canada.

The containment measures have made Amazon even more popular and ubiquitous in the daily lives of millions of people.

Other companies like the supermarket chain Walmart or the logistics group Fedex have also benefited from the jump in online sales and hired briskly.

© 2020 AFP