Australian retailers boosting workforces ahead of bumper mid-year sales season

Aussies chasing some extra cash amid the cost of living crunch are in luck with one retailer alone looking to fill more than 1000 jobs.

Amazon Australia process assistant Bianca Tang started with the company as a seasonal worker in 2022. Picture: Supplied

Australian retailers are preparing for a bumper mid-year sales season and it won’t just be Aussies looking for a bargain who will benefit.

Major retailers are hiring extra casual workers to help meet the demand during what Australian Retailers Association chief executive officer Paul Zahra tipped would be a busy period.

“There’s no doubt at the moment, there’s a cost of living crisis, so people are very conscious and price sensitive, and they’re looking for particular looking for deals,” he said.

“Retailers are expecting that mid-year sales will be large, and as a result, they’re staffing up accordingly.”

One retailer alone – Amazon Australia – is looking to hire more than 1000 workers in a bid to boost its workforce ahead of the mid-year sales season.

Australian Retailers Association CEO Paul Zahra. Picture: Supplied

Mr Zahra said some sales had already started, with the official mid-year and end-of-financial-year sales due to run throughout June.

“There’ll be quite a lot of casual work available in the retail industry across the board as retailers will be scaling up to deal with the volume of sales during this period,” he said.

The seasonal roles at Amazon Australia are offered at its fulfilment and logistics sites across the country and could result in an income of more than $1000 a week, depending on the position and hours worked.

The pay starts from $28.80 an hour, ranging from a couple of shifts a week to almost full-time hours. The majority of Amazon’s sites operate seven days a week, including night shifts at some centres.

Alternatively, job seekers might opt to sign up for Amazon Flex, which is a parcel delivery service similar to Uber, where drivers can earn a minimum of $114 for a four-hour window.

The seasonal roles, which could be for up to three months’ employment, have the potential to turn into more permanent positions.

Bianca Tang says she loves working at Amazon Australia. Picture: Supplied

The Aussie jobs boost comes despite the online retail giant’s plans to shed 9000 jobs, mostly in its cloud service, across its global business.

In January Amazon also revealed separate plans to shut three UK warehouses and seven delivery stations, affecting more than 1,200 further jobs.

Sydney university student Bianca Tang, who started as a seasonal worker in the packing team in February last year.

Within six months she gained full-time employment and now works Wednesday to Saturday as a process assistant, which ties in well with her uni schedule.

“I really love the work that I’m doing here. The work environment made me stay and I’ve found a really good balance [with uni],” Ms Tang said, who is doing a bachelor of law and security studies.

“Amazon has taught me everything I needed to know about the job and any questions were easy to answer. Everyone is very understanding and inclusive.”

Amazon Australia director of operations Mindy Espidio-Garcia said the company was looking for “motivated and enthusiastic” people to join the team.

“We provide on-the-job training, so no previous experience is required,” she said.

“People are at the heart of our operations, and our peak periods are an exciting time to be part of the team. We make the busy find. It is by prioritising out people, that we are then able to deliver a world class experience for our customers,” she said.

Blankets and other winter woollies are tipped to be popular in the mid-season sales.

The company is looking for seasonal workers with a range of skill sets and experience to help pick, pack, sort and ship customer orders, with applications open now for roles at Amazon sites in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

Mr Zahra said he expected winter products to be a standout in the mid-season sales, driven by cost of living squeezes and the recent cold snap.

“There’s no doubt it has been exceptionally cold and there’s no doubt that what’s going to be popular will be things like blankets, winter woollies, anything to do with the winter season,” he said.

“Winter is really just here and when you look at going into June, July and August, the coldest months are yet to happen. So people will be looking to stock up on winter products.”

An Australia Post spokesperson said it had a number of permanent, fixed-term and casual vacancies available across the country.

“Many of these are in the Brisbane and Melbourne call centres and the operations network, including opportunities for Sydney-based motorcycle license holders and Queensland-based truck license holders,” they said.

“Australia Post typically has a larger number of roles available leading into October, November and December.”

Originally published as Australian retailers boosting workforces ahead of bumper mid-year sales season