Amazon Creates Hidden Job Bonanza

As “Mallmageddon” continues to reap its destructive path across America’s shopping malls and retail parks, it’s too easy to point the finger of blame for store closures and retail job losses at Amazon.

However, according to a recent report in the Financial Times, Amazon is actually creating more jobs than it is destroying.

The Amazon Hidden Workforce

While the eCommerce giant currently employs less than a third of the workforce employed by Walmart in 1985 (before it was threatened by online competition and its founder Sam Walton was crowned America’s richest businessman), Amazon relies on a hidden workforce whose numbers are not reflected in retail employment stats.

For example, UPS has created more than 100,000 jobs in the last 16 years, many of which can be attributed to the success of online retailers like Amazon.

And while shop floor staff are increasingly threatened with redundancy, many more people are now employed in warehouse-related work.

As such, it has been estimated that the online economy (led by Amazon) has actually boosted the number of people employed in the retail industry by 54,000 in the past year, with many more people employed in warehouse-related work.

Then we must factor in all of the people employed by small and medium-sized businesses that make up the bulk of third-party sellers on the Amazon marketplace – many of which would not be in business without an opportunity like Amazon.

Amazon has more than 2 million active sellers on its global marketplace business, generating nearly 40% of total units sold on the platform.

Despite these incredibly positive figures, many will still be suspiciously eyeing up Amazon as a job killer, despite the Amazon hidden workforce that has been created.

Advances in warehouse automation and even drone delivery may impact on some jobs (although the prospect of drone delivery in urban environments is still a long way off) – this innovation will in itself create more opportunities – perhaps even in industries we have yet to imagine.

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