Amazon prepares for the holiday rush

Amazon is getting ready for the holiday shopping rush and creating more than 70,000 full-time seasonal jobs across its U.S. fulfillment centers to meet an increase in customer demand — a 40% increase over last year’s seasonal hires.

In 2012, Amazon converted thousands of seasonal employees into regular, full-time roles after the holidays, and expects to do the same this year. On average, seasonal employees earn 94% of Amazon fulfillment center employee starting wages and are eligible for health care benefits.

“So far this year, we have converted more than 7,000 temporary employees in the U.S. into full-time, regular roles and we’re looking forward to converting thousands more after this holiday season,” said Dave Clark, Amazon’s VP of worldwide operations and customer service. “Each year, seasonal jobs lead to thousands of long-term, full-time roles in our sites — jobs that offer great pay, benefits starting on day one and the chance for employees to further their education through our Career Choice program.”

Since the start of the financial recession in Sept. 2008, Amazon has added more than 40,000 jobs in the U.S. across all parts of the company.

For its regular, full-time fulfillment center positions, Amazon offers competitive hourly wages and a comprehensive benefits package, including healthcare, 401(k) and company stock awards.

Amazon also offers full-time employees innovative programs like Career Choice, where it 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 last summer, employees are pursuing degrees in game design and visual communications, nursing, IT programming and radiology.

Applicants can apply online.