COVID-19 Report: How Many of Amazon’s 100,000 New Jobs Have Exposure?

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Mar 17, 7:14AM EDT

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COVID-19 Report: How Many of Amazon’s 100,000 New Jobs Have Exposure? — © ollo / Getty Images

Amazon.com Inc. (NYSE: AMZN) said it has a new demand for 100,000 jobs and will begin to hire immediately. Most of these workers will be in fulfillment centers and distribution, which Amazon calls its delivery network. A few people at the Amazon distribution center already have been infected with the COVID-19 virus. People who become part of any delivery network touch customers and parcels, even though some people will opt for deliveries that will leave packages outside.

The Amazon employee ramp-up shows how a large company can have a positive effect on the national job rate. Amazon said as much in its announcement:

We also know many people have been economically impacted as jobs in areas like hospitality, restaurants, and travel are lost or furloughed as part of this crisis. We want those people to know we welcome them on our teams until things return to normal and their past employer is able to bring them back.

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It also will increase pay to some of its workforce. In the United States, this will be $2 for people who make $15 or more. It is another way money is pumped into the economy.

How risky are these jobs? While it is too early to forecast a total possible income, some of Amazon’s distribution workers have already contracted the virus. A recent report from BuzzFeed News indicated that those who are anxious mostly work in distribution centers and places where packages are sorted. A number of workers have asked for time and a half, sick leave and childcare.

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While Amazon has not answered many of these demands, many of its new 100,000 workers will feel happy just to have a job. Inevitably, some of these people will be infected. Is the risk worth the reward? That question will have to be answered by each individual.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.