E-Commerce Could Be A Savior In Disguise
When it comes to employment, a substantial rise in the e-commerce sector may not be negative after all.
As retail giants like Amazon, Walmart and FedEx continue to compete to produce faster and more efficient e-commerce shipments, they have had to invest in larger warehouses and fulfillment centers to meet the needs of their growing consumer base.
Not only have warehouses doubled in size since 2010, they have also added workers four times faster than the rate of overall job growth in the U.S., and much of this growth is happening in areas outside of main city centers, the New York Times reports.
In many cases, the counties benefiting are smaller hubs such as the Lehigh Valley, part of the region in eastern and central Pennsylvania that has grown more quickly over the last five years than anywhere else in the U.S.
And Amazon will be adding even more jobs in the near future, having announced plans to hire 120,000 seasonal employees nationwide by the end of 2017 in addition to the 30,000 full-time, permanent employees it had promised to add over the next year as it continues to expand its logistics capabilities.
