Amazon announces commitment to hiring American veterans and military spouses

Amazon made its pledge to hire American veterans as well as spouses of military members. On Tuesday, July 13, Jeff Bezos’ company announced that it would carry out this commitment in the next two and a half years.

The plan to hire modern-day defenders of the Constitution

It was mentioned that Amazon will be hiring 100,000 veterans and military spouses by 2024 in the United States. The exact ratio of the hirings is 84,000 veterans and 16,000 of the latter. The e-commerce and tech giant is giving this opportunity to those who served the country and have left the service.

“Anecdotally, a lot of the veterans that I talk to - many of them raise their hand and defend the Constitution, and then they come out of service, and they don’t know what to do, but they love the idea that they could be in a role that has real long-term value," director of global military affairs at Amazon, John Quintas, told FOX Business.

Amazon made the same commitment for the first time after pledging to hire 25,000 veterans in 2016. It has carried out the promise and even took in more than the initial stated number.

At this time, it was said that around 40,000 veteran and military spouses are working in Amazon. They were given jobs in the company’s operations and supply chain as well as in Amazon Web Services, the firm’s cloud computing arm.

The company is said to have positions now that are available for veterans. They can apply to over 35,000 open jobs and can start with the minimum wage of $15 per hour plus benefits.

Amazon needs workers with the skills and qualities of veterans

The Business Journal noted that Quintas is a military man himself, having served in the Air Force. He thinks that the skills that were learned while in the army can be a big help for the company as there are jobs in Amazon that require such skills.

The executive further described the veterans to have strong team-building skills, leadership, and understands selflessness. He said that these are the qualities that Amazon is looking for when hiring new employees, so the veterans are actually a good fit for the company.