Amazon created 4,500 new permanent jobs across its 50 sites in Italy in 2021, for a total workforce of over 14,000 employees.
Amazon today announced it has created over 4,500 permanent jobs in Italy in 2021. Exceeding by 50% the plan announced last June, Amazon now has more than 14,000 permanent employees across Italy. The company has more than doubled its employee base in Italy since the end of 2019, when it had 6,900 employees.
Amazon has become a major job creator in Italy offering stable and well-rewarded opportunities across the Country, contributing to sustaining the Italian economy’s recovery and digitization. Amazon has achieved the Top Employer Italy 2021 and 2022 certification from the Top Employers Institute, which acknowledges the quality of workplaces, the training opportunities and the career plans offered to employees in Italy.
According to a study by The European House – Ambrosetti, analyzing large companies in Italy, Amazon is the private company that created more jobs in Italy than any other company over the last 10 years in absolute terms (between 2011 and 2020). Since the opening of Amazon.it back in 2010, Amazon has created, on average, more than 24 permanent jobs a week in Italy.
Amazon’s first investment in Italy was more than 11 years ago, and, over the years, it has invested heavily in building its business in the country. Over the last decade alone (2010 to 2020), Amazon has committed more than €8.7 billion to grow Amazon in Italy and support the digitalization of Italian small and medium businesses. In addition, if you take in to account our cumulative investments in Italy plus our GDP contribution Amazon, has achieved an estimated total contribution of over €17 billion* since 2010.
Mariangela Marseglia, VP Country Manager Amazon.it and Amazon.es, says: “Amazon’s doubling of permanent jobs in Italy over the past two years highlights the company’s impact on the country’s economy. Our support for the growth of the Italian economy comes both from the support of local communities through the creation of skilled jobs for each of our 50 sites across the Country, and from investments in the digitization of SMEs. The talented individuals we’ve hired will be going on building the digital and physical infrastructure that helps more than 18,000 Italian small businesses to deliver products and services to millions of customers globally. Italian SMEs selling on Amazon have created more than 50,000 jobs as a direct consequence of their relationships with Amazon. There has been a lot of talk about how e-commerce has grown during the two years of the pandemic, but even these numbers show that this growth has generated new quality jobs, about 100,000 including direct and indirect jobs, and contributed to the country’s economic growth in line with the key objectives of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. In this context, the protocols signed in 2021 represent further proof of our commitment to establishing a constructive and responsible dialogue in the Country in terms of industrial relations”.
Amazon offers a wide range of jobs for people from all backgrounds, career aspirations, education and skill levels – including engineers, linguists, cloud experts, talent managers in the entertainment industry, workers reentering the job market, and entry-level positions – in more than 50 sites across the Country. This includes jobs at Amazon’s Italian Corporate Office in Milan; Development Centres in Turin and Asti; Data Centers in Lombardy; Customer Service Centre in Cagliari; and Fulfilment Centres and Delivery Stations, from Trento to Catania.
Amazon has also created good quality jobs in places where they are scarce. Amazon employs 5,000 people with permanent roles in the centre and south of Italy, and 1,100 new jobs will be created in these areas over the next three years. The vast majority of Amazon employees live in the communities that surround each site, and many of them grew up in those communities. Job opportunities with Amazon make a big difference for entire communities where there are limited options for many people to earn a living, offering careers within an advanced retail and technology business.
All of Amazon employees are paid a competitive salary from day one. In 2021, thanks to the wage increase which is part of Amazon regular salary review, the starting pay is 1,680 euro per month, 8% above standard wages set by the National Contract for the Transport and Logistics industry.
Moreover, they receive a comprehensive benefits package, including a retirement savings plan and healthcare, medical and life insurance, and great career and upskilling opportunities. These ones include innovative programs like Career Choice, that provides employees with free funding for professional training and tuition up to a value of €8,000 to gain new skills to support them when pursuing their career at Amazon or in high-demand occupations in areas such as manufacturing, healthcare and transportation.
Amazon offers jobs for people from any countries and age: more than 100 nationalities are represented in our Italian sites. Amazon is the gateway into the world of work for many younger people: we have more than 1,200 people under the age of 24, the average age of an Amazon employee in Italy is 34. We also offer great later-life job opportunities for older people: eight percent of employees are over the age of 50, and our oldest employee is over 64. Many of the jobs we created during 2021 were in highly skilled, high-demand professions; during the year we recruited over 100 people into software development, information technology and engineering roles. Skills and training are essential to support the expansion of our operations, and Amazon is looking at reinforcing its partnership with post-high school technical Institutes (ITSs) to support new talents with specialized education.
Along with the new permanent roles that the company is creating, Amazon continues to support the creation of a large number of jobs outside of Amazon by providing local companies (many of them small and medium-sized enterprises) with the technologies and tools they need to sell their products to a global customer base, including programs such as Selling on Amazon and FBA, or the training program Accelera con Amazon that will boost the growth and the digitization of more than 20,000 small businesses across Italy by 2022.
According to research conducted by Amazon in March 2021, more than 50,000 people are currently employed across our Italian third-party seller network as a direct consequence of their relationships with Amazon. In addition, as a direct effect of Amazon investments, it has supported the development of indirect work opportunities across our Italian supply chain: more than 34,000 people now work for companies providing services to Amazon across Italy[1].
