Amazon is growing its footprint north of the border as the tech giant spreads its corporate footprint beyond Seattle and continues growing despite the ongoing economic crisis.
The company said today it will hire another 3,000 corporate and tech employees at its Vancouver hub, and 500 in Toronto.
Amazon is preparing to move into more than 1.1 million square feet of space at QuadReal’s The Post redevelopment in Vancouver. The company two years ago initially said it would hire 3,000 people at the site, scheduled to open in 2023. Amazon has since gobbled up more office space at the site and plans to have more than 6,000 employees there once construction is completed.
Amazon first established a presence in Vancouver in 2013. The city, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle, was a potential candidate for Amazon’s second headquarters, in part due to Canada’s pro-immigration policies.
Vancouver ranks as one of the top tech talent markets in the U.S. and Canada, with some of the lowest wages, according to a July report from CBRE. Amazon already has more than 2,500 employees in the city.
Microsoft also has a sizable footprint in Vancouver; other Seattle-area companies including Zillow and Salesforce-owned Tableau have offices in the British Columbia city.
A Microsoft-sponsored group called the Cascadia Innovation Corridor Conference has laid out goals in recent years to connect Portland to Seattle to Vancouver, B.C., with a proposed high-speed rail line. This month it released a new report outlining an idea to build mid-sized cities between the big urban centers that define the region.
Amazon announced last month that it would add 3,500 tech jobs in Dallas, Denver, Detroit, New York CIty, Phoenix, and San Diego.
Amazon’s announcement Monday also comes as other companies rethink the physical office and remote work amid the pandemic. Amazon has reopened its buildings but will allow employees who can work from home to do so through Jan. 8, 2021.
