JOBS: Amazon to add 1,000 more jobs

Amazon has announced it will create 1,000 more jobs for its Inland Southern California fulfillment centers.

In addition to 1,000 jobs announced earlier this month, takes the hiring roster to 2,000.

Mike Lee, the community and economic development director for Moreno Valley, says he hasn’t seen this many job

s created in such a short amount of time, ever. “This is huge for our region,” Lee said.

Amazon’s announcement was made at the Moreno Valley City Conference & Recreation Center. The hiring is part of a nationwide recruitment effort by Amazon.

“What we heard was Amazon was impressed with the quality of candidates they are getting from the region,” Lee said.

Amazon, in a statement issued Wednesday by spokeswoman Ashley Robinson, said the firm is proud to continue to hire for 1,000 more newly created permanent, hourly positions at the Inland Empire fulfillment centers in Moreno Valley, Redlands and San Bernardino.

Tuesday, the company held a hiring event with about 400 applicants in Moreno Valley, and each received a contingent offer of employment at facilities there, Robinson said.

Asked to comment on the caliber of the candidates on the whole, Robinson said, “We have found an enthusiastic, dedicated and customer-obsessed workforce in the Inland Empire.”

Moreno Valley Mayor Jesse Molina called the recruitment announcement terrific news.

“Anytime a business says that it is hiring this many people it is a big deal,” Molina said. “When it’s coupled with community investment, it means all that much more.”

Thomas J. Goldsby, a business and logistics professor at Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University, said in a Monday symposium for forecasters at Riverside Convention Center that “Amazon is expanding at a pace that is making Wal-Mart very, very nervous.”

Amazon has created thousands of full-time jobs in the Inland region since the first California facility opened in San Bernardino in 2012, Moreno Valley city officials said. Fulfillment centers in Redlands and Moreno Valley began shipping customer orders in 2014.

Amazon is making the news almost daily with innovations like rapid delivery and mail drops with drones, Goldsby said.

Tuesday’s hiring event was an offshoot of the Hire MoVal program and coordinated efforts with Riverside County Workforce Development Agency. Communication networks were shared. Amazon recruitment opportunities were publicized to Moreno Valley businesses.

As an added benefit to Amazon, the company qualifies for a 2 percent discount on electrical rates under the Hire MoVal program if at least 20 percent of the workforce hails from Moreno Valley. The discount rises to 4 percent if the workforce percentage is at least 40 percent.

Fielding Buck contributed to this report.

Via: http://www.pe.com/articles/amazon-771361-moreno-valley.html

Brown official orders EDD to pay jobless claims first, check eligibility later

With thousands of Californians still waiting for unemployment checks because of a computer problem that has delayed payments for weeks, the Brownadministration on Tuesday ordered the Employment Development Department to begin paying backlogged claims for continued benefits before determining if they are eligible for payment.

Calling the backlog "unacceptable," Marty Morgenstern, secretary of the state Labor and Workforce Development Agency, told EDD Chief Deputy Director Sharon Hilliard in a memorandum that without such action "it is unlikely that the claims backlog will be reduced quickly enough to respond to the very real financial hardship now being experienced by too many of our residents relying on timely payment of their UI benefits.

Morgenstern said, "Consequently, I am directing EDD to immediately begin the process of paying backlogged claims for continued UI benefits prior to a final determination of eligibility."

Final determinations of eligibility for backlogged claims "will have to be completed later and at that time EDD will act to recover any resulting overpayments that might occur," the memo said.

Loree Levy, an EDD spokeswoman, said in an email late Tuesday night that Hilliard received Morgenstern's memo and that EDD "will begin paying all backlogged UI claims without any further delays."
She said claimants who currently have claims in the backlog will begin receiving payments as soon as Thursday.

EDD, which is upgrading its 30-year-old unemployment insurance processing system, said early last week that about 50,000 Californians had claims delayed after the department converted several years of old data into a new processing system over the Labor Day weekend. The problem quickly grew wider, however. By Friday, EDD said about 185,000 of the state's nearly 800,000 people receiving benefits had been affected, with about 80,000 backlogged claims yet to be cleared.

The department put hundreds of employees to work over the weekend, hoping to put a significant dent in the backlog. The effort was largely unsuccessful. Though EDD said it cleared about 43,000 claims from the backlog over the weekend and another 11,000 claims Monday, new claims replaced the ones EDD cleared, and the backlog of submissions older than 10 days remained about 80,000 as of Tuesday afternoon.

Morgenstern acknowledged what he said were "multiple steps" by EDD "to aggressively deal with backlogged certifications," including redirecting staff from other program areas to help process claims and increasing overtime.

However, he said such efforts are unlikely to be sufficient. He said paying backlogged claims for continued unemployment benefits before a final determination of eligibility is consistent with U.S. Department of Labor guidelines.

"It is my expectation that this payment action along with the dedication of additional staff resources will expedite the elimination of the backlog and the payment of UI benefits to those most in need in the shortest possible time," Morgenstern wrote.

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/09/brown-official-orders-edd-to-pay-backlogged-claims-first-check-eligibility.html#storylink=cpy