Amazon expanding offices

Amazon plans to add thousands of corporate jobs across six cities, including 2,000 in a building on New York’s Fifth Avenue that was once the flagship Lord & Taylor store.

The company will add 3,500 jobs in New York, Phoenix, San Diego, Denver, Detroit and Dallas, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The new hires indicate the online retail giant is planning a return to in-person office work even as other tech firms, such as Facebook and Twitter, announce long-term remote work strategies due to the coronavirus pandemic. Amazon directed employees to begin working from home in March, before numerous other major employers.

“The ability to connect with people, the ability for teams to work together in an ad hoc fashion — you can do it virtually, but it isn’t as spontaneous,” Amazon Vice President of Workforce Development Ardine Williams told the Journal. “We are looking forward to returning to the office.”

The company plans to add over 900,000 square feet of office space in the six locations, including 630,000 square feet in New York alone, according to the newspaper. The expansion is set to take place over the next two years, but numerous positions will be filled now, the company said.

Williams said all the positions being added, including engineering and product-management jobs, are new. They will also incorporate positions across various departments within Amazon including advertising, Amazon Fresh and Amazon Web Services.