Amazon announced yesterday that it plans to create more than 5,000 new, part-time, work-from-home customer service jobs over the next year.

The new customer service jobs are part of Amazon’s plans to hire more than 30,000 part-timers over the next year. Amazon also plans to create 100,000 full-time jobs in the U.S. over the next 18 months. 

Tom Weiland, Amazon’s vice president for worldwide customer service said in a statement, “We’re finding that roles with Virtual Customer Service are particularly attractive to military spouses who want to continue working and parenting, even if their spouse is deployed or the family is relocated, as often happens with military families. Wounded, injured or ill military veterans and others with mobility challenges are also enjoying these opportunities to work from home with Amazon…and we’re happy to support them.”

Flexibility, in the form of work-from-home and part-time gigs, is a prized job attribute for many working Americans. But according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics this year, 5.7 million part-time employees would rather have a full-time job with benefits.

Corporations are not required to pay benefits to part-timers—but Amazon offers benefits to part-timers working 20 hours a week or more. These folks are also eligible for Amazon’s Career Choice program that “pre-pays 95 percent of tuition for courses in high-demand fields, regardless of relevancy to Amazon.”

Emili Vesilind

JCK Senior Editor