Amazon adds jobs after Obama visit

Online retail giant Amazon announced it would add 7,000 jobs, the latest hires for a company that will push the company over 100,000 employees, up from just 17,000 in 2007.

Of the new jobs, 5,000 were full-time warehouse position with pay grades the company said are well above the average for traditional retail and include stock grants and eligibility for tuition reimbursement for college.

The other 2,000 jobs will be a mix of full- and part-time and seasonal customer service positions.

Amazon's hiring strategy aims to decrease time to shipment, including next-day delivery, and Amazon plans to add same-day delivery for certain items. The warehouse jobs represent a 25 percent increase in current fulfillment center staff.

The fulfillment centers are in Breiningsville, Pa.; Middletown, Del.; Chattanooga and Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Charleston and Spartanburg, S.C.; Patterson, San Bernardino and Tracy, Calif.; Chester, Va.; Coppell, Haslet and San Antonio, Texas; Hebron, Ky.; Indianapolis and Jeffersonville, Ind.; and Phoenix.

President Barack Obama paid a visit to the Chattanooga center Tuesday to tout his new "grand bargain for middle-class jobs," where he praised the company for its part in improving the economy and adding "good jobs with good wages for the middle-class folks for work at those businesses."