Tech giant Amazon to create hundreds of new jobs in Fife and Dundee

Amazon will create hundreds of new permanent jobs in Fife and Dundee this year as it benefits from the boom in online shopping.

The tech giant will create 7,000 new jobs UK-wide by the end of the year, in addition to 3,000 extra staff recruited already in 2020.

Amazon’s fulfilment centre in Dunfermline, which currently employs more than 1,000 staff, will create a further 200 permanent roles by the end of 2020.

It is also hiring for more than 1,000 seasonal roles in time for the Black Friday and Christmas rush.

The delivery station in Dundee, which had 30 staff at the beginning of 2020, will see its headcount rise to more than 50 by the end of the year. It is also hiring for more than 80 seasonal roles.

Stefano Perego, Amazon’s vice president of European customer fulfilment, said: “We’re proud to be creating 10,000 new permanent roles across our UK network of fulfilment centres, sort centres and delivery stations offering competitive wages and comprehensive benefits starting on day one.

“Our people have played a critical role in serving customers in these unprecedented times and the new roles will help us continue to meet customer demand and support small and medium sized businesses selling on Amazon.

“The new state-of-the-art robotics fulfilment centres in the North East and the Midlands, as well as the thousands of additional roles at sites across the country, underline our commitment to the people and communities in which we operate.

“We are employing thousands of talented individuals in a diverse range of good jobs from operations managers and tech professionals through to people to handle customer orders.”

The recruitment means Amazon’s UK workforce will rise from 30,000 to 40,000 this year.

The new jobs will be across 50 sites in the UK. The roles will including engineers, graduates, HR and IT professionals, health and safety and finance specialists, as well as the teams who will pick, pack and ship customer orders.

Amazon has already offered temporary roles to thousands of people whose jobs were impacted at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, many of whom will now be offered a permanent job.

The online retailer is also creating more than 20,000 seasonal positions across the UK ahead of the festive period.

Mr Perego added: “We prepare year-round for the festive season and we’re also excited to have over 20,000 seasonal positions available this year to help delight our customers.

“We look forward to welcoming back seasonal workers who return year-after-year to work at Amazon and welcome new faces to the seasonal team.”