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In spite of the ongoing concerns and uncertainties surrounding Brexit, Amazon has reinforced its commitment to the UK with the announcement that it is to hire 5,000 additional staff across the country this year, bringing total UK staff to 24,000.
As a part of the news, the ubiquitous online retailer said that the new roles would be based across three new fulfillment centres in Tilbury,Doncaster and Daventry, in addition to being based at its offices in Cambridge, Edinburgh and London. There will also be several full-time jobs created at Amazon’s fashion photography studio in Shoreditch.
These hires come as a part of the company’s wider European hiring plan which will see 15,000 new recruitments by the end of 2017.
Doug Gurr, Amazon UK country manager, said in a statement: "We are creating thousands of new UK jobs including hundreds of apprenticeship opportunities as we continue to innovate for our customers and provide them with even faster delivery, more selection and better value."
There have, naturally, been concerned that the UK’s decision to leave the EU would see something of a ‘Brexodus’ for tech, with big names like Samsung deciding to snub the country in favour of setting up shop elsewhere in Europe.
However, Amazon has joined Google and Apple in restating its stance in the UK. Google recently announced the opening of a cloud computing centre in London, while Apple’s decision to open a ‘state of the art’ campus in the iconic Battersea Power Station was well publicised last year.
Similarly, travel site Expedia announced plans to double the size of its Islington office, with the intention of taking a lease on an additional 138,000 sq ft of office space until 2030.
"We see a lot of opportunity in London given the continued growth of ecommerce and technology industries and the strong pool of talent in the city," said Expedia-owned president of Hotels.com Johan Svanstrom.
Speaking on Amazon’s announcement, London Mayor Sadiq Khan celebrated the creation of jobs in the nation’s capital
"Amazon’s commitment to London will deliver new jobs and growth for the economy and offers further proof of our status as a world-class destination for global technology businesses.
"Home to some of the world’s top tech talent, London is Europe’s leading technology hub. Amazon’s continued growth in our city is another sign that London remains open to innovation, entrepreneurship and investment from all over the world."
