Amazon is coming to Staten Island and it’s bringing jobs for humans and robots. The Seattle e-commerce giant said today it will open an 855,000-square-foot fulfillment center in the New York City borough, its first in the state of New York, which it claims will create 2,250 full-time jobs along with “opportunities for employees to engage with advanced robotics.” More specifically, Amazon says “employees at the Staten Island fulfillment center will work alongside robotics to pick, pack, and ship customer items such as household essentials, books, and toys.”
It’s not the first time Amazon has used this language to tout the opening of a new warehouse. It played up the “robotics” angle for recent announcements of fulfillment centers in Michigan, Florida, and Colorado, to name a few. And, of course, full automation–or something close to it–is the end game for Amazon. A report in the Seattle Times last December revealed that 20 of Amazon’s fulfillment centers employed 45,000 robots, a 50% increase over the previous holiday season.
Read more about the Staten Island project here.
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