Amazon had hoped to fill 50,000 job openings on Wednesday. It didn’t even get halfway to that goal.
As part of an event the company dubbed Amazon Jobs Day, job fairs were held in a dozen different warehouses around the country, including Baltimore, Maryland and Buffalo, New York. Prospective employees who had successful interviews would be offered full- and part-time jobs on the spot.
But, as it turns out, only 20,000 people showed up to learn more about the openings. It’s unclear what percentage of that group were extended job offers.
While 20,000 applicants in a single day is nothing to sneeze at, it’s far short of the company’s ambitions—and could indicate that people aren’t crazy about taking a job that’s as labor intense as the one in a fulfillment center, where salaries generally range from $11-$14 per hour.
Amazon, in a statement, pointed out that it never said it wanted to hire all 50,000 workers in a single day – and it is still processing applications from yesterday.
“We expect candidates who were not near an Amazon Jobs Day event location or weren’t able to attend the event will continue submitting their applications in the coming days,” said Nina Lindsey, corporate communications manager for Amazon.
The hiring event came as Amazon attempts to hire as many as 100,000 additional workers by the middle of 2018. Beyond warehouse jobs, the company is also looking for software engineers, data scientists, and customer service workers.