Amazon To Add 5K Jobs In Virtual Customer Service

Amazon’s latest employee-boosting ambitions will certainly add to the growing stats of workers working remotely.

The online retail giant just announced a plan to create over 5,000 new part-time roles over the next year as part of its Virtual Customer Service program. In a nutshell, the program allows employees to work from home as customer service representatives. According to the company, part-time remote employees receive competitive wages, and those who clock in 20 hours per week or more receive employee benefits.

“There are lots of people who want or need a flexible job — whether they’re a military spouse, a college student or a parent — and we’re happy to empower these talented people no matter where they happen to live,” said Tom Weiland, Amazon vice president for Worldwide Customer Service, in a company statement.

The number of remote workers in the U.S. and globally is projected to rise by the end of the decade. Some 34 percent of respondents to a survey of business leaders said that more than half of their company’s full-time workforce will be working remotely by 2020. Additionally, 25 percent reported that more than three-quarters will not work in a traditional office by 2020.

The 5,000 new jobs in virtual customer service comes in addition to the broader Amazon initiative the company announced in January of this year: to create 100,000 full-time, full-benefit jobs in the U.S. during the course of the next year-and-a-half.

Amazon said many of the jobs will be in the company’s new fulfillment centers that are currently under construction in Texas, California, Florida, New Jersey and other states around the country.