Amazon is hiring for a warehouse in New Stanton; job fair planned

Amazon is set to expand its workforce at its New Stanton warehouse this month and plans to hire 600 workers there by the end of the year.

The e-commerce giant began recruiting earlier this month and expects to hire additional staff by the end of the month.

Janice Albright, office administrator for PA Career Link at Westmoreland County Community College near Youngwood, said her office will hold a job fair Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be opportunities for people to get jobs locally, Albright said.

As Albright explained, Amazon offers workers a four-day workweek of 10 hours a day in an automated warehouse, with a flexible schedule for the days or evenings they work.

The company wants to hire 600 workers for a 1 million-square-foot warehouse — what Amazon calls an “inbound crossdock” — that serves as a replenishment area, said Sam Fisher, an Amazon spokesman. The company expects the $120 million inbound crossdock to be fully operational by the holidays, Fisher said.

Workers on site will break down larger containers of inventory, which will then be sent to fulfillment centers where packages will be shipped to customers. The warehouse has multiple conveyor belts moving inventory through the building, Fisher said.

“That’s how we get our inventory ready to ship,” Fisher said.

Albright expects a good turnout for the job fair. She said she posted an ad on the agency’s Facebook page “and it got a lot of likes.” She said she has talked to recent employees at the warehouse and they were happy with the jobs.

Amazon’s hiring comes just as rival shipping giant UPS cut jobs this spring at its New Stanton warehouse. Westmoreland County had 5,600 unemployed workers in May, while the county’s unemployment rate was 3.1%, according to the state’s Center for Workforce Information and Analysis.

The warehouse developer and property owner, Charlotte, N.C.-based SunCap Property Group, began construction on the facility in December 2022 by leveling a hillside off Glenn Fox Road. The developer initially expected the warehouse, located about a mile from the Pennsylvania Turnpike exit, to be completed in about a year.

Albright said the fact that Amazon is hiring workers at a starting salary of $17.75 an hour, plus benefits, will likely put more wage pressure on other employers in the area looking to hire.

“How could it be otherwise? These are entry-level positions, getting in the door” and receiving good pay and benefits, Albright said.