Amazon to Retrain 100,000 Workers
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America’s second largest employer has a problem with its workforce, and according to the New York Times it’s going to take $700 million to fix it.
Amazon has announced that it will initiate a mass retraining program, covering about a third of its U.S. workforce, which amounts to about 100,000 people.
The program is said to be a response to the changing role of the warehouse worker, as Amazon continues to reinvent the fulfillment process using automation and robotics. And while this technology could technically threaten the jobs of those doing traditional warehouse work, it does so at the same time that Amazon finds itself in need of other skilled workers.
With that in mind, this re-training intends to add skills to make employees capable of filling the – as of now – about 20,000 open positions Amazon has nationwide. According to the report, the fastest-growing skilled jobs include “data mapping specialists, data scientists, security engineers, and logistics coordinators.”
And while Amazon contends that its training effort “isn’t a response to automation” and it still uses far more people than robots, VP of People Operations Ardine Williams said the initiative would allow warehouse workers to learn high-tech skills that could lead to new jobs within Amazon or at other companies – which sure makes it sound like they have too many traditional fulfillment workers even though business is booming. And my guess is, you can thank a robot for that.
Image Credit: Thomas Industry Update
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