Amazon to hire 3,000 new employees in the Czech Republic for Christmas season

While the COVID-19 pandemic has created turmoil for many businesses across the globe, some are thriving. The online retail industry has seen huge gains in 2020, with further growth expected over the upcoming holiday season.

Global online retail leader Amazon will ramp up its operations in the Czech Republic through a pre-Christmas recruitment campaign. The company plans to hire for an additional 3,000 positions in the country, according to recent reports.

"These are mainly entry-level positions that deal with completing orders for customers," Amazon spokesperson Miroslava Jozová told iDnes.cz.

"These people can be employed in various workplaces, such as receiving goods into a building, storing and unloading individual items, or at packaging stations.”

The 3,000 positions will roughly number the number of employees at Amazon's warehouse in Dobrovíz, near Prague.

Entry-level positions at the Amazon warehouse in Dobrovíz start at about 160 crowns per hour; team leader positions start at 205 crowns per hour.

Amazon employs about 1,000 additional people at a corporate office in Prague. The new recruitment campaign will bring the total number of Amazon employees in the Czech Republic to about 7,000 people.

While the majority of the new positions will only be temporary for the holiday season, many will have the opportunity to transfer into permanent positions within the company afterwards.

"[Up to] hundreds of them have the opportunity to transfer to permanent jobs in the few months after Christmas," Jozová says.

Companies in related spheres are also likely to ramp up recruitment for the 2020 Christmas season, during which shopping is likely to transition further online. Czech Post plans to hire an additional 5,000 employees for the holiday season.

Amazon isn't only expanding in Prague. This autumn, the etail giant is hiring for about 100,000 new positions in North American markets.