[ad_1]
Amazon is looking for some 100,000 additional hires. As impressive as it is, this number is actually lower than the one that the online commerce giant has added, whether in 2016 or 2017, when it had 120,000 additional workers.
Citi analyst Mark May believes the reduction in seasonal hiring is solid evidence that Amazon is succeeding with plans to automate operations in its warehouses.
"We have seen an acceleration in the use of robots in their distribution centers, which is a growing number of workers hired during the holidays," May told CNBC on November 2. He added that 2018 was the "first time in the archives", Amazon intends to hire fewer vacationers than the previous year.
"Since the last holiday season, we have focused our efforts on full-time recruiting in our order processing centers and other facilities," said Amazon spokeswoman Ashley Robinson in an email. , clarifying that the company year. "We are proud to have created more than 130,000 new jobs in the past year alone."
Amazon bought the robotics company Kiva Systems for $ 775 million in 2012 and started using its orange robots in warehouses at the end of 2014. In mid-2016, it became clear how much these robots were doing the difference. The little orange guys could handle in 15 minutes sorting, picking, packing and transport that previously required an hour or more of human workers. As of June 2016, Deutsche Bank had predicted that Kiva 's automation would save Amazon nearly $ 2.5 billion (these savings fell to $ 880 million considering the costs of the project. installation of robots in each warehouse).
According to Mr. Robinson, Amazon has created 300,000 full-time jobs since 2012. "It's a myth that automation is replacing jobs and destroying net job growth," she said. email. "Our teams work alongside more than 100,000 robots in more than 26 order processing centers around the world and we are excited to continue to develop the technology we use at our sites while strengthening our global workforce."
The success of robots here may also have contributed to Amazon's October 2 decision to increase its minimum wage to $ 15 an hour for all US employees, affecting approximately 250,000 employees on time. full and 100,000 seasonal workers. This operation is less risky financially if Amazon is quickly replaced by these human workers by robots and other automated systems.
In a research note on Oct. 15, Brian Nowak, a Morgan Stanley analyst, was optimistic about Amazon's ability to offset rising wages through automation. Nowak noted that Kiva robots are already enabling smaller Amazon warehouses to handle the same capacity as other centers, resulting in lower running costs. "We believe that the improvement in the efficiency of execution will be offset by the aforementioned salary increase," he wrote.
In other words, the 2018 holiday season could be a harbinger of what will happen.
Source link
