- Amazon hitting records by hiring 1,400 people every day
- Manufacturing PMI in China at the top of the last 3 years
- USA prepares to blacklist Chinese oil company
Amazon Hitting Records by Hiring 1,400 People Every Day
Turning the pandemic that has been going on since the beginning of the year into an opportunity, Amazon started recruiting 1,400 people daily. Surpassing Walmart’s record, which was hit around 20 years ago, Amazon has increased its number of workers to 1.2 million people worldwide. It is a 50% increase compared to last year. Obviously, the number of people who only work for the Amazon is greater than the populations of many countries.
The recruitment campaign launched by the company resulted in Amazon speeding up its business at the beginning of the epidemic and becoming the winner of the crisis. As of July, the company has employed around 2,800 employees a day, which means around 350,000 people are employed.
This growth in Amazon’s number of workers has been described as unrivaled in world history. Walmart, currently one of the largest private grocery stores with more than 2.2 million employees, was known to recruit 230,000 employees twenty years ago. Amazon has already doubled this.
Also, most of Amazon’s recruits were warehouse workers, but it also hired software engineers and hardware experts to power businesses such as cloud computing, video streaming, and other devices that exploded in the pandemic. According to the National Retail Federation, Amazon has the biggest cake in the e-commerce market, up 30%compared to last year’s holiday season.
Manufacturing PMI in China at the Top of the Last 3 Years
China remains the first major country on the road to full recovery from the economic crisis created by the coronavirus epidemic. Manufacturing activity reached a 3-year high in November.
The official manufacturing PMI, prepared by the National Bureau of Statistics, increased from 51.4 points in October to 52.1 points in November. This was the highest level seen in this direction from September 2017.
Analysts had expected the manufacturing PMI to be 51.5 points in November. In November, the new export orders sub-index increased from 51.0 points in the previous month to 51.5 points. The sub-index, which measures the activity of small companies, also recovered from 49.4 points in October to 50.1 points in November.
Nomura predicted that the Chinese economy, which grew by 4.9% on an annual basis in the third quarter, will grow 5.7% in the fourth quarter. China put forward a growth forecast of 2% for the whole year.
While the official manufacturing PMI data in Asian markets came above expectations, China indexes watch an upward movement
Official manufacturing PMI data from China and investors’ expectations regarding the news flow for coronavirus vaccines influenced the pricing of its shares in Asia. As the official PMI data in Asian markets came above expectations, China indexes, such as Shanghai Composite and Shenzhen indexes showed an upward movement.
USA Prepares to Blacklist Chinese Oil Company
US President Donald Trump continues to increase the pressure on China in the last days of his term, worsening tensions with China weeks before Joe Biden takes over the White House.
According to Reuters, the Trump administration in the US is preparing to blacklist Chinese chip maker SMIC and oil company CNOOC on the grounds that they have military connections. Reuters, citing a document seen by unnamed individuals familiar with the matter, claimed that Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. and China National Offshore Oil Corp. are among four Chinese companies to be added to a list of firms owned or operated by the military.
In the same context, where China Construction Technology Co. Ltd. and China International Engineering Consulting Corp. companies are also evaluated, it is stated that the Trump administration will blacklist 35 Chinese companies in this context.
Following the news, the oil company CNOOC lost more than 9% of its shares traded in Hong Kong. The company’s subsidiary China Oilfield also fell 11%.
“There will be huge impact on the company because the oil-and-gas value chain involves a lot of U.S. companies from upstream, mid-stream all the way to the gas side,” said Sengyick Tee, an analyst with SIA Energy. “This also means they cannot procure parts and software from U.S. companies.”
Reuters reported last week that the Trump administration is close to declaring that 89 Chinese aerospace and other companies have military ties, restricting them from buying a range of US goods and technology.
