Amazon creates thousands of new jobs in another win for post-Brexit UK and Expedia expands London office
Amazon is the latest US tech giant to commit to the UK after the vote for Brexit, promising to create thousands of new jobs by the end of the year.
Some 5,000 full-time jobs will be created across Amazon's business in the UK, bringing total headcount to 24,000 by the end of 2017.
The plans include jobs at its new head office, due to open in London later this year, and its development centres where technology for drone delivery and its Alexa voice assistant is being worked on. The web giant's first ever drone delivery via Prime Air took place in Cambridge earlier this year.
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Amazon will also launch a new apprentice scheme for hundreds of young people in engineering, logistics and warehousing at fulfilment centres across the country, with three new locations due to open this year in Tilbury, Doncaster and Daventry. That's in addition to a previous pledge by its cloud services arm Amazon Web Services to train young people and ex-military personnel in digital skills.
Full-time jobs will also be created at the centres as well as at its Edinburgh customer service centre and fashion photography studio in Shoreditch.
“We are creating thousands of new UK jobs including hundreds of apprenticeship opportunities as we continue to innovate for our customers and provide them with even faster delivery, more selection and better value," said Amazon UK country manager Doug Gurr.
"We are hiring for all types of roles from flight test engineers, software engineers and corporate managers in our development centres and head office, to operations managers, supervisors, engineers, service technicians, HR roles and order fulfilment roles in our fulfilment centres. We are also proud to empower many thousands of others to work alongside Amazon in serving our customers – from Marketplace sellers to Flex delivery drivers to Kindle Direct Publishing authors.”
The investment was welcomed by London mayor Sadiq Khan as another signal that the capital remains attractive as a global technology hub.
“Amazon’s commitment to London will deliver new jobs and growth for the economy and offers further proof of our status as a world-class destination for global technology businesses," he said.
"Home to some of the world’s top tech talent, London is Europe’s leading technology hub. Amazon’s continued growth in our city is another sign that London remains open to innovation, entrepreneurship and investment from all over the world.”
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Since the vote to leave Europe, several of the world's top tech firms have committed to investing in the UK.
Google boss Sundar Pichai said last year that it will continue with plans for a new £1bn headquarters in King's Cross with room for its staff numbers to double.
Facebook will create 500 new jobs while Apple will moe to huge new offices in Battersea. And Snapchat parent company Snap plans to set up an international HQ in the UK.
Meanwhile, Expedia has also announced plans to expand in the capital, leasing a further 138,000 sq ft of office space in Islington until 2030, where it plans to increase headcount.
"As a company, we see a lot of opportunity in London given the continued growth of ecommerce and technology industries and the strong pool of talent in the city. We look forward to expanding the presence of our Expedia group of businesses here in years to come," said president of Expedia brand Hotels.com Johan Svanstrom.