Amazon continues hiring surge in Florida with 8,000 new positions; expansion continues in SWFL

Amazon plans to hire roughly 8,000 new employees in Florida as it continues explosive growth and bumps its average starting salary to $18 per hour. 

To date, more than 50 sites in the Sunshine State are related to fulfillment and delivery operations, including more than 10 new facilities launched in 2020.

At least two more centers with links to Amazon are planned in Lee County. Earlier this year, company leaders debuted a warehouse facility at Davis and Collier boulevards in Naples on the old "Iron Skeleton" property that the In the Know column first tied them to in 2019.

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Eventually, the multinational conglomerate confirmed its plans there, hiring around 100, and numerous other commercial and residential projects have followed or are proposed near the intersection. The Great Wolf Lodge is among those setting up shop.

That's been such a relief for those who drove by the abandoned Iron Skeleton shopping center, which for about a dozen years served as a constant reminder of the Great Recession that left the local landscape littered with paralyzed projects.

Now, the area is going through an economic surge, and these days the region, which is at fully employed status based on labor formulas, finds itself with not enough available workers.

That hasn't stopped Amazon from posting eight jobs in Southwest Florida including assistant manager, technology, workplace safety, human resources and transportation roles, with plans for more as the powerhouse continues to expand.

One way it competes is that it pays employees better than some other entities.

"We take our responsibility as an employer seriously and want our employees to succeed and thrive," said Dave Clark, CEO Worldwide Consumer at Amazon.  "That's why we offer an average starting wage of over $18 per hour, provide a great range of comprehensive benefits—including health care coverage, parental leave, career training and ways to save for the future."

Just as Collier and Davis has become a hot corner in Naples with the help of Amazon's 110,000-square-foot center, the company is playing a role in the accelerating Alico Road corridor near Southwest Florida International Airport off I-75.

Back in 2019, it opened a delivery station off Treeline Avenue, just north of Daniels Parkway in Fort Myers but not nearly at the scope of its usual monsters, and it also had a few hiccups.

Promising 450 jobs at the 60,000-square-foot site, it ended up with only 350 staffers by the time it kicked off, and that came after it pushed the opening of the doors to the last day in February 2019. Newly hired “Amazonians” were promised they could start in November 2018, and many of them had quit their previous jobs.

Much bigger footprints are in store for Fort Myers.

Seefried Industrial, which builds fulfillment centers for Amazon, bought the 30-acre former Alico Family Golf Center for $9 million in June. Seefried also bought a 15-acre parcel adjacent to the golf center and fronting Alico Road for $6.1 million.

That’s a combined 45 acres selling for more than $15 million. Those are adjacent to the combined 60 acres selling next to them for $12.99 million and $2.25 million, respectively, earlier this year.

Public records show approval to build a 278,670-square foot distribution center on 73 acres and another 181,500-square-foot structure on the closed golf center.

The first of the two Amazon warehouses is already rising across Alico, near Domestic Avenue and Lee Road.

Amazon's annual Career Day is taking place today , providing free virtual one-on-one career coaching. Candidates can always submit applications at amazon.com/apply.

Beyond Southwest Florida, big doings are in the works up and down the Peninsula. As many as 1,000 jobs are expected in Tallahassee, where the company recently began construction of a new robotics fulfillment center that will bring operations closer to customers in 2022.

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Amazon is quickly growing workforce as it has hired more than 450,000 employees in United States — making it the largest job creator in the country. 

"We are proud to offer opportunities for people from a range of backgrounds, from furloughed workers to former military personnel," Clark said, noting his "team of thousands working to build a safe and inclusive work environment."

Based at the Naples Daily News, Columnist Phil Fernandez (pfernandez@gannett.com) writes In the Know as part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, which supplemented this report. Support Democracy and subscribe to a newspaper.