Amazon has announced it is bringing 10,000 new permanent job roles to the UK over the next year.

The retail giant will open operation centres in several English locations, as well as corporate hiring and staffing for the cloud-computing division Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Additionally, the firm will be bringing some positions to Edinburgh, basing operations networks and AWS services in the Scottish capital.

Amazon said the recruitment drive will help to support the UK out of the pandemic as the country eases out of lockdown, and once complete will bring its total British workforce to more than 55,000.

The firm has also announced a training a skills programme, investing £10 million over the next three years to train up to 5,000 employees in new skills.

Commenting on the news hires, Amazon said in a statement: “Corporate roles will be available in offices in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Cambridge across a wide range of fields, including fashion, digital marketing, engineering, video production, software development, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

“In operations, Amazon will open a parcel receive centre and four new fulfilment centres, as well as continue to expand its delivery station network, creating thousands of new permanent roles on teams including engineering, HR and IT, health and safety, finance, and those that pick, pack and ship customer orders.”

Commenting on the latest jobs announcement, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: “Amazon’s announcement is fantastic news and a huge vote of confidence in the British economy, helping us deliver on our commitment to level up across the UK with a whopping 10,000 new permanent jobs.

“As we build back better from the pandemic, this is a prime investment in our retail sector.

“Over the past year, Amazon’s workforce have pulled out all the stops to ensure consumers have had safe access to goods during this challenging time.

“Their latest investment will open up a wide range of opportunities for even more workers, helping to develop the skills needed to power tomorrow’s economy.”

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The news follows on from the announcement by the firm in February of a major recruitment drive that will see more than 1,000 apprentices hired across Britain.

Amazon said that the apprenticeship scheme will “create jobs across a range of areas”, including IT, creative design, robotics and software engineering. Apprenticeships at the company will last between 14 months and four years and provide practical training.

The firms move to bring jobs to the UK is positive as we emerge from a second lockdown and begin to build back the UK economy. However, Amazon has recently been in the spotlight for bad business practices.

It was announced earlier this month that the firm had paid zero corporation tax on European sales last year, despite annual revenue reaching almost €44 billion.

On top of this, the company also received €56 million in tax credits to offset future profits. Additionally, the firm has been criticised for the treatment of staff and anti-union tactics.

After a union battle at an Alabama warehouse, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said: “We need to do a better job for our employees”.