According to internal research obtained by Recode, Amazon is worried that it won't have enough warehouse workers in the US by the year 2024.
According to the authors of the research note, if business continues as usual, Amazon will deplete the available labor supply in the US network by the year 2024. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment about the contents of the document.
Hundreds of global fulfillment centers are used by Amazon to fulfill orders. According to its most recent quarterly financial report, the company is growing outside the US, but still depends on the country for 70% of its retail-business sales. Amid a broader reshuffling of the US labor market, Amazon will have to solve its warehouse staffing challenge.
The memo made its dire forecast based on a specific pool of workers that the company deems eligible or likely to work at its fulfillment centers based on demographic and location data Amazon was projected to exhaust its potential workforce by the end of the year. According to Recode, the company made it easier to enforce workplace policies in its warehouses.
Amazon is facing resistance from employees who stay. Workers at an Amazon warehouse in New York succeeded in unionizing in April. The company has tried to quash organizing efforts, but even without them warehouse workers are increasingly vocal about things like insufficient bathroom breaks and dangerous working conditions.
In a survey of 31,000 former warehouse employees, employees reported improved working conditions at FedEx and Walmart. The survey found that employees who left Amazon to join another company rated Amazon worse on work fitting skills or interests, demands of the work, shift length, and shift schedule.
To fix its warehouse labor problem, Amazon needs to address its gripes, attract new talent, and improve its automated systems.
In-person shopping was limited when covid-19 hit. Amazon was able to thrive. In the first three quarters of the year, the company made $8.1 billion, a 220% increase over the same period in the previous year. 200 million people pay $139 a year for Amazon Prime, which includes one-day shipping.
The surge in demand for fulfillment workers was caused by all the e- commerce demand. Chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky said on a February earnings call that Amazon didn't hire enough people in the last quarter of the year. Over the course of the second half of the year, Amazon added 270,000 new employees.
Minimum hourly wages have been raised to as much as $18 an hour, and marijuana testing has been dropped for prospective applicants, in order to keep more workers coming. It is clear that it is getting harder to find people who want to work for Amazon.
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