Amazon is one of the top investors in the U.S. economy, and since 2010, we have contributed more than $880 billion to the national gross domestic product (GDP). The investments we make help expand local economies by supporting the creation of direct jobs at Amazon and indirect jobs in fields like construction, health care, retail, and professional services.
This includes the positive impacts we make in small towns. Here, for example, Amazon fulfillment centers act as a critical resource for our business, allowing us to make deliveries from strategically placed locations so we can better serve our customers. Many of our fulfillment centers are located in small towns (populations of less than 50,000 according to the U.S. Census Bureau) across the U.S., and as a result, create significant, positive impacts in these communities through job creation, boosting local businesses, providing employees access to skills training, and more. Over the last 5 years, Amazon fulfillment centers have employed over 750,000 people on average, with 40% of these jobs located in small towns.
Here are the top five ways Amazon is creating positive impacts in small towns.
1. Direct job creation
Amazon is the country’s leading job creator—adding more than 800,000 jobs in the last five years, including hundreds of thousands of jobs in small-town communities where we’ve opened fulfillment centers. In fact, two out of every five jobs Amazon creates are in small towns across America.
These jobs unlock new opportunities for residents in these communities. On average, 47% of the people we hire for logistics roles (such as those at our fulfillment centers) were previously unemployed, and the jobs we create provide an average hourly wage nearly triple the federal minimum and benefits from day one of their employment.
2. Indirect job creation
Research has shown that Amazon investments spur additional economic activity. In addition to the jobs we create when we open a fulfillment center, Amazon investments support the creation of nearly 1.6 million indirect jobs in fields like construction and hospitality. An Amazon logistics facility directly employs an average of 3,000 people locally, providing a steady income to thousands of families in the area who then spend more at local businesses, creating a positive impact across the local economy.
In fact, according to a study by economists at Amazon and The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, for every 10 jobs that Amazon created directly, nine other jobs were created elsewhere in the county where the facility is located. The impact doesn’t stop at job creation. The same study found that when Amazon opens a facility, median household incomes in the county increase by $1,225 per year and poverty rates fall by as much as 3.3% on average.
3. Good pay and benefits from day one of employment
Amazon fulfillment and transportation jobs pay an average wage of $20.50 an hour, nearly triple the federal minimum wage, and come with comprehensive, industry-leading benefits.
Along with good pay, Amazon offers comprehensive benefits that include health care, mental wellbeing, and financial benefits—plus benefits that support their lives, like paid parental leave, childcare and eldercare, and flexible working schedules—on day one of the job.
4. Helping local businesses grow
Sylvia Kapsandoy, founder, USimplySeasonAlong with the jobs we create, we also help support the economic success of small- and medium-sized businesses. Today, more than 60% of sales in Amazon’s store come from independent sellers, and approximately 500,000 small- and medium-sized businesses in the U.S. sell in Amazon’s store. According to our Small Business Empowerment Report, in 2022, sellers in rural areas, including parts of Rhode Island, Illinois, Louisiana, West Virginia, and Wyoming, collectively achieved more than 40% year-over-year sales growth in Amazon’s store.
These sellers also create new jobs in their communities to manage their Amazon orders. We estimate that independent sellers support 1.5 million jobs in the U.S., including jobs that are responsible for managing, operating, and supporting their efforts to sell through Amazon’s store. These are in addition to the indirect jobs we support in small towns (such as the construction and hospitality jobs mentioned above).
We work with small businesses that sell in Amazon’s store, providing them with valuable support so that they can grow, no matter where they’re located. The Fulfillment by Amazon program lets sellers outsource their fulfillment, delivery, customer service, and returns to Amazon. Fulfillment by Amazon significantly reduces shipping costs for small businesses (70% less for two-day shipping).
According to Sylvia Kapsandoy, founder of USimplySeason based in Layton, UT, “Amazon made it possible for me to build a small business—using the tools usually only available to big businesses. Fulfillment by Amazon handles the shipping and customer service, freeing up me and my small team to do what we do best—make our products.”
5. Investing in skills training for Amazon employees and the public
Along with good pay and benefits, Amazon provides skills training programs for employees to help them advance their careers. More than 175,000 Amazon employees have enrolled in free technical skills training and education courses, through programs like Career Choice, which offers pre-paid college tuition.
“I started on the fulfillment center floor in August of 2021 and shortly after, applied for an equipment coordinator position. They have a cool program called Surge2IT, where you take online classes that teach you the skills necessary to succeed in an IT technician or engineer role. I completed the program and was hired on as an IT tech. Now, through Career Choice, I’m working towards a role in engineering,” said Drew DeVinney, IT support associate II.
Amazon and AWS also offer a variety of free skills training programs for any professional who is looking to acquire new skills and remain competitive, from getting a cloud technology certification to obtaining basic skills on Artificial Intelligence (AI). Through several programs we are delivering on our commitment to provide free tech skills training to 29 million people around the world by 2025. Additionally, we recently launched AI Ready, a new initiative to provide training in this rapidly-developing and high-demand field to more than 2 million people.
To learn more about how Amazon is creating positive impacts across all of our communities, read our most recent Community Impact Report.
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