Amazon is hiring 4,800 employees in the Philadelphia area, with jobs concentrated in transportation and fulfillment, writes Ryan Mulligan for the Philadelphia Business Journal.
The announcement was made at a press conference Tuesday morning at Philadelphia City Hall.
Starting wage for the new jobs will be $18 an hour and will include benefits like health care, and paid leave.
For front-line workers, Amazon will pay college tuition and for GEDs.
Amazon Senior Staffing Manager Sam Bankole said Amazon’s Southwest Philadelphia Amazon facility will be a focal point of the hiring.
State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, who attended the press conference, with State Rep. Regina Young (D-185) welcomed the news.
“We’re going to bring a thousand jobs to Southwest Philadelphia, to a community that hasn’t seen job creation in generations, in a community that has been overlooked,” he said.
Amazon has been expanding across the region.
It purchased its first brick-and-mortar building in King of Prussia for $26.5 million. It leases more than 50 large warehouses in the region, writes Max Marin for billypenn.com.
In August, it opened an Amazon Fresh store in Bucks County, the first in Pennsylvania. Stores are also planned in Broomall, Havertown, and Bensalem.
Read more at Philadelphia Business Journal about Amazon’s Philadelphia hiring push.