Amazon To Hire 1,000 Additional Workers In Kenosha

Online retail giant Amazon is out to hire another 1,000 workers for its new order fulfillment center in Kenosha, exceeding its anticipated hiring numbers by nearly 60 percent. The new jobs are creating an even rosier employment picture in an area of the state that has already more than fully recovered from the Great Recession.

Kenosha County Job Center manager Doug Bartz said Amazon was originally expecting to hire between 1,700 and 1,800 workers but the company’s recent announcement, “should blow those numbers out of the water.”

Bartz said unemployed workers who are looking for work are starting to gain the upper hand.

“Employers are starting to loosen a little bit on their restrictions and they’re starting to hire people who might have a few more barriers to employment,” said Bartz. “And they have to because the unemployment number is going down.”

Chris Isaacson, director of youth employment at the Boys and Girls Club in Kenosha, said he’s seeing evidence that some employers have grown hesitant to rely so heavily on computers to do the initial vetting of online applicants. He pointed to new hiring practices at local McDonald’s.

“If the manager likes you, they will direct you over to the kiosk where you can do the online application and they’ll do it with you and try to help you,” said Isaacson.

Amazon will host a recruitment fair Thursday at the job center in Kenosha. Bartz said people who meet the company’s qualifications will be hired on the spot with a starting pay of $12 an hour.