Is 1st Amazon warehouse in Tri-Cities finally hiring hundreds? See for yourself

Amazon Inc. is at hiring warehouse workers in Pasco and the proof is in the parking lot.

Delivery trucks and passenger vehicles fill the lot at 1351 S. Road 40 E., one of two massive warehouses the Seattle e-commerce giant built starting in 2021 to fulfill customer orders.

On Monday morning, Amazon was offering warehouse associate jobs in Pasco with openings available for 11 shifts. The advertised pay rate was up to $20 an hour, a 50 cent bump from the advertised rate a week ago.

Amazon opens jobs in Pasco in waves, with new posts generally posted Friday evenings. Last week, no jobs were available by the end of the week.

The warehouse is expected to open later this month. It will employ 1,000-1,500, in addition to 150 more jobs planned at a separate Amazon delivery station facility being built east of the Tri-Cities Airport.

The hustle and bustle was a welcome change after Amazon temporarily paused its warehouse expansion plans in 2022, leaving the original two Pasco warehouses empty.

”It is gratifying to see Amazon’s progress hiring and taking steps closer to opening the distribution centers. This will be a long-term term boost to our regional economy and we welcome all the economic growth Pasco is experiencing,” said Colin Hastings, director of the Pasco Chamber of Commerce.

Amazon revived progress in Pasco this year when it said it would open one of its two warehouses as an Inbound Cross Dock to sort and redistribute incoming merchandise. Some job posts have said work could start later in July.

Amazon has not publicly shared its plans for the second vacant warehouse on South Road 40 East, referred to as “Project Pearl” in planning documents. Pasco building permits place the construction value of the two warehouses at $260 million.

It was not immediately clear how many people have been hired so far in Pasco.

WorkSource Columbia Basin teamed with Goodwill Industries and Columbia Basin College to conduct weekend events that helped more than 260 job seekers connect with Amazon, said Ajsa Suljic, regional labor economist for the Washington state Employment Security Department.

You can monitor Amazon job postings at hiring.amazon.com.

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