Amazon seeks 50,000 temporary elves to wrap up America's Xmas

Amazon will be taking on over 50,000 seasonal staff in the US to pack up the nation's Furbies, Lego and video games for Christmas.

The mega-etailer is already hiring 10,000 short-term staff in the UK and said today that it would need five times that for its centres in America.

“We’re hiring at our sites across the US for talented individuals to help us deliver a great experience for our customers this holiday season," Dave Clark, veep at global customer fulfilment, said.

"Temporary associates play a critical role in meeting increased customer demand during the holiday season, and we expect thousands of temporary associates will stay on in full-time positions."

Amazon has around 20,000 people working in its 40 US centres, which will be crowded with the over 200 per cent extra workers.

The online shopping emporium gets slammed around Christmas, with millions of deliveries going out, but invariably some holiday shoppers get disappointed. Despite banners telling customers how long they have to shop in order to get their goods on time, leaving it all to the last minute, postal service issues and weather problems have frequently led to tear-soaked faces under the Christmas tree. ®