Amazon Plans to Bring 100,000 New Jobs to the United States By 2018

Amazon plans to bring an additional 100,000 full-time and full-benefit jobs to the US by 2018, the e-retail giant announced in release. The massive hiring program will bring the tech company’s total US workforce from 180,000 to 280,000 over the next 18 months. The jobs will employ people from a wide spectrum of “experience, education, and skill levels”, from entry-level job seekers to engineers and software developers.

The bulk of the roles will put thousands to work in fulfillment centers, which are currently being built across the nation in states including Texas, California, Florida, and New Jersey.

“Innovation is one of our guiding principles at Amazon, and it’s created hundreds of thousands of American jobs” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder and CEO. In the press release, Amazon claimed credit for indirectly helping to employ thousands of third-party sellers through Amazon Flex and Marketplace.

Amazon also touted the highly competitive salaries it would be offering Amazonians, as well as health and disability insurance, stock options, and 20 weeks of paid parenting leave.

Given the incoming Trump administration, Amazon’s announcement has been interpreted as a rebuttal to the president-elect’s withering attacks on the tech industry and promises to bring jobs back to the US. Trump also called Amazon out for avoiding taxes in 2015.

Bezos and Trump met along with several other Silicon Valley heads at a tech roundtable last month, during which Trump urged them to keep production and jobs in the US.