Online retail giant Amazon.com has said that it will create over 70,000 full time seasonal jobs in the US, up 40% on its intake last year in anticipation of high customer demand this Christmas.

Dave Clark, vice president of worldwide operations and customer service at Amazon, said: “Each year, seasonal jobs lead to thousands of long-term, full-time roles in our sites-jobs that offer great pay, benefits starting on day one and the chance for employees to further their education through our Career Choice program.”

Last month, the company said that it would be recruiting over 1,500 seasonal positions across eight UK centres as well as its Edinburgh-based customer service centre.