Amazon, Inc. (NASDAQ:$AMZN) has announced that it will be opening a second corporate office in Vancouver, Canada, thus doubling its staff in the western Canadian city by early 2020. The reason? The e-commerce giant is looking to tap into the thriving local tech workforce.
Amazon, who is based in Seattle, said the expansion is not something that is new; it has been in the works for quite some time. Additionally, the company’s expansion in Vancouver is not related to the race by cities across North America to become the company’s $5 billion HQ2.
“These will be largely software engineering, tech, and non-tech jobs, and they’ll be contributing to products that are used globally,” Jesse Dougherty said. Dougherty is the general manager for the Vancouver office.
The expansion in Vancouver comes at a time when companies in the U.S. are struggling to secure visas in a timely fashion in order to import foreign workers who can fill highly skilled, technical jobs. For those who don’t know, President Trump’s administration has made it increasingly tough for skilled foreigners to work in the United States, as he has been challenging visa applications more regularly than former President Barack Obama ever did.
As mentioned, the Vancouver expansion will see Amazon double its workforce in the city to 2,000 by early 2020. “Amazon likes to hire the smartest people we can find and so Vancouver certainly is a place where we like to get that growth,” Dougherty said.
Featured Image: depositphotos/@Hannamariah
