Amazon faces struggle to find enough workers to fill jobs at new $550M facility

Amazon’s massive $550 million warehouse and distribution center is rising near Buffalo — but local officials have reportedly expressed fears that the e-commerce giant won’t find enough workers for the projected 1,000 jobs when it opens.The “first-mile” facility, about the size of 53 football fields, in the rural Town of Niagara has no public transportation service and the jobs are not considered particularly high-paying, though they will fetch more than minimum wage.Due to open in 2026, it is being built at time when the workforce in Western New York shrinks and remote-work remains in high demand.“I’m hoping we can find 1,000 people to come and work here,” Niagara Town Supervisor Sylvia Virtuoso told The Buffalo News.“I think it’s quite challenging.

We try to employ people in the town, and it’s difficult, and our wages are significantly higher.That’s going to be a major challenge.”Construction cranes are hard at work on the site of the fulfillment center at 8995 Lockport Road, where the steel skeleton is being erected atop the 216-acre plot of land that was purchased by Amazon last month.In 2022, local government agencies approved a $124 million package of tax incentives to entice Amazon to build the Niagara facility.But the subsidy — which is said to be the ninth largest ever received by Amazon — sparked opposition due to the fact that residents were worried about the traffic problems the facility would cause as well as the $15-an-hour jobs — a wage deemed insufficient by many.Virtuoso told The Buffalo News that there are plans to add a bus route that will enable workers to travel to the site from Niagara Falls and the SUNY Niagara Community College campus in Sanborn.“I believe everybody will be able to get to work, if they want to work,” Virtuoso said.

“Many things can change, including the wages.We’re all on the same page.

We know what it takes to employ the people, and I know Amazon does, too.”The Post has sought comm...