Amazon brings over 800 new jobs to Salem

(JULY 20, 2019) Amazon is a big business. And today, the internet company starts to hire more than 800 full-time jobs at its new location in Salem. It will also hire part-time employees. The starting wage for both is $15 an hour with benefits. (Health insurance, retirement plans, and vacation time are examples of benefits.)

Amazon has a new fulfillment center. The building is 1 million square feet. It fills orders for bigger items. The new workers will make those products ready to deliver to customers. Then the workers will load the products onto trucks.

“Anything that’s larger than a microwave,” says Eileen Hards. She works for Amazon. She told Oregon Public Broadcasting that the Salem facility handles products such as sports equipment, gardening tools, and patio furniture. She added, "We have a lot of pet and dog food in that particular fulfillment center.”

In order to get the fulfillment center (and the jobs) to Salem, the city of Salem agreed to lower Amazon's taxes for three years. That seems like a good idea to many people. However, some businesses worry that there are not enough workers. The unemployment rate in Oregon is about 4 percent, which is almost the lowest in history. Other businesses worry that they might lose their employees because Amazon pays more money.

“Everybody is anxious, but nobody knows what’s going to happen,” one man told the Salem Reporter newspaper.