In a year
of mass work from home, Amazon is funding a big expansion of corporate office
space and jobs in six cities.
The company
will add over 85,000 square meters of real estate and 3,500 tech and corporate
jobs in Dallas, Detroit, Denver, Phoenix, San Diego and even New York City,
whose future as an expensive work hub has been subject to much analysis.
Amazon's
own corporate staff members are allowed to work remotely until Jan. 8, but the
company is betting that workers will be eager to return to offices.
Asked about what prompted Amazon to go all-in on physical spaces, a company representative cited the familiar virtues of in-person work, like the spontaneity of collaboration and teamwork, as well as the expected long-term value of added investment in these "tech hubs."
Amazon is
planning 2,000 new jobs in New York City. It bought the Lord & Taylor
flagship building after WeWork failed to turn the historic space into its own
headquarters.
Aditionally, Amazon is in talks with the biggest U.S. mall company to turn some department store spaces into fulfillment centers.
The big
expansion comes after Amazon — famous for reinvesting much of its cash —
reported an eye-popping $5.2 billion in profits from surges in
online shopping during the pandemic.
Amazon employs
more than 1 million permanent and temporary workers globally, mainly staffing
its warehouses. The new corporate jobs will be across different parts of its
operations, including the cloud-computing and grocery-delivery businesses,
advertising, fashion and smart speakers.
From NPR (edited)
