Online retail giant Amazon has announced that it created 10,000 new jobs in the company across Europe in 2015 and that it plans on creating several thousand new ones in the region in 2016.

Amazon UK released a statement today reporting that it currently employs 40,000 people across Europe and that, “the 10,000 new permanent roles added in 2015 is the most Amazon has created in a single year in Europe and a 50% increase over 2014″.

Additionally, Amazon said that in 2016, it will be “investing to expand its European Fulfilment Network, increase EU-based research and development, and build new infrastructure to support its growing cloud-computing business, among other initiatives”.

Apex Insight reports regularly of rumours of Amazon’s activities across Europe and this statement reinforces the general belief that Amazon is gearing up for further expansion in the EU and surrounding region.

Vice President, Amazon EU Retail Xavier Garambois said: “We are seeing stronger demand than ever from our customers all across Europe, and we see lots more opportunity across Amazon’s businesses to invent and invest for the future. We created over 10,000 new jobs in 2015 and plan to create several thousand more in 2016 at all education, experience and skill levels, from speech and linguistic scientists to digital media experts to fulfilment centre and customer service associates.”

It has been reported that the company plans on creating 2,000 jobs in the UK alone. Trades unions have welcomed the news guardedly, pointing out that though the new roles are permanent, pressure on those working to perform, as well as the fear of losing their jobs and relatively poor pay do not make the jobs in question high quality and worthy of celebration. That the company is bringing new employment to countries on the verge of possible recession is good news however.