By Dave Sebastian

Amazon.com Inc. plans to hire 100,000 seasonal workers heading into the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays as customers are expected to continue shopping online during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The e-commerce giant on Tuesday said the seasonal workers would pack and deliver items, among other roles, during the holiday shopping rush. The additions build on the company's hiring spree this year to meet soaring demand during the pandemic, even as companies across a range of industries have cut their workforce and filed for bankruptcy.

The Seattle-based company also said it has promoted more than 35,000 operations employees, including fulfillment-center workers, across North America this year. Amazon said it pays its workers at least $15 an hour.

Last month, the company said it would hire 100,000 additional warehouse employees in the U.S. and Canada. Excluding seasonal workers, Amazon's world-wide workforce will be roughly one million after accounting for the 100,000 additional positions and 33,000 positions it is hiring for in its corporate divisions. The company will have more than 700,000 employees in the U.S. once those positions are filled.

Amazon has experienced a wave of orders this year as Covid-19 restrictions pushed more people toward online shopping. The company postponed its annual Prime Day sales event, which propelled consumers to spend billions of dollars online earlier this month, after struggling to meet a surge in online ordering at the outset of the pandemic. The event was also marked by activism around the country, including an online petition targeting Amazon's productivity expectations for warehouse workers.

Retailers like Walmart Inc. and Target Corp., as well as e-commerce companies such as Instacart Inc., have also seen immense growth online and hired hundreds of thousands of workers. Bricks-and-mortar retailers have booked some growth through their digital sales as their stores experienced Covid-19 disruptions. Some retailers plan to close stores on Thanksgiving and are offering Black Friday deals online during November and December to reduce crowds.

Amazon, which accounts for more than a third of online sales in the U.S., has recorded record profits during the pandemic. The company posted a record $88.91 billion in sales during its second quarter, and profit doubled to $5.24 billion from the same period last year.

The company will report third-quarter results on Thursday. Analysts polled by FactSet expect Amazon to post a profit of $3.84 billion on sales of $92.78 billion for the period.

Write to Dave Sebastian at dave.sebastian@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

10-27-20 1052ET