RALEIGH – Amazon will be hiring an additional 2,000 people across North Carolina as part of the Internet giant’s efforts to meet growing demand during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The new positions – a mix of full-time and part-time – will lift Amazon’s workforce in the state to nearly 10,000. Amazon earlier this week disclosed plans to hire 75,000 people, and the NC positions are part of that effort.

Amazon operates a massive warehouse in Garner and a distribution hub in Durham as well as other facilities in the state.

Pay starts at $17 an hour – a $2 per hour boost through April.

Workers also receive double-time for overtime work rather than the standard time-and-a-half.

More information is available at this site.

Since the pandemic began, Amazon has more than doubled its NC workforce to 7,400 with 3,900 hires as part of a 100,000-job expansion.

“US residents can text AMAZON to 77088 to receive automated messages about job openings near them,” Amazon adds.

Amazon has faced criticsm from some workers for what they say are lack of adequate safety measures at various facilities. The company has started to develop a test for the novel coronavirus in order to help restart the battered economy. In fact, a protest is planned for April 24, CNBC reports.

CEO Jeff Bezos in his annual letter to shareholders earlier this week said that regular testing for every industry is needed to “both help keep people safe and help get the economy back up and running.” He said for that to happen, society needs “vastly more testing capacity” than is currently available. He’s assembled a team of Amazon employees from various units to create new tools to test for Covid-19.

Bezos said Amazon will begin testing “small numbers” of employees soon. “We are not sure how far we will get in the relevant time frame, but we think it’s worth trying, and we stand ready to share anything we learn,” he wrote.

Help wanted: Thousands of jobs available across Triangle, NC despite virus crisis