Amazon has announced plans to open a new 1,000,000ft2 fulfillment center in Auburndale, Florida. The new site will create more than 500 new, full-time jobs.
Employees will pick, pack and ship large customer items, such as sports equipment, patio furniture, fishing rods, pet food, kayaks, bicycles and larger household goods. The project will be developed by ProLogis.
“We are excited to join the Auburndale community and create more than 500 new, full-time jobs with industry-leading pay and benefits at our newest fulfillment center in the state,” said Alicia Boler Davis, Amazon’s vice president of global customer fulfillment. “Florida has been a source of exceptional talent for Amazon and the Sunshine state is an ideal location to provide great selection, competitive prices and superfast shipping speeds to Floridians.”
In addition, Amazon has pledged to invest over US$700m to provide upskilling training for 100,000 US employees for in-demand jobs. All associates will go through hours of safety training and have access to continuing education opportunities through Amazon’s upskilling programs such as Career Choice.
In this program, the company will pre-pay up to 95% of tuition for courses related to in-demand fields, regardless of whether the skills are relevant to a career at Amazon. Since the program’s launch, more than 25,000 employees have pursued degrees in game design and visual communications, nursing, IT programming and radiology, to name a few.
