The coronavirus pandemic has caused problems for the U.S. job market. There have been numerous layoffs, hiring freezes, and record numbers of unemployment. Many companies are affected by this current economic crisis, but Amazon (AMZN  ) continues to grow larger, with the e-commerce giant expanding its workforce to keep up with high delivery demand and the changing consumer climate.

Amazon is seeking to bring in 33,000 new employees for corporate and tech jobs for the next few months in addition to hiring more hourly workers within its operational network. The company started a hiring frenzy since the beginning of the pandemic due to a rise in online orders. According to CNBC, Amazon hired 36,400 in June bringing their workforce to 876,800, with the e-commerce giant expressing the goal of reaching 1 million employees worldwide.

The company's biggest recent hire is former National Security Agency Chief Keith Alexander, with the company appointing the former chief to its board of directors. Alexander is a figure of controversy due to his involvement in illegal mass surveillance that was leaked by whistleblower Eric Snowden back in 2013.

The hiring of Alexander will give Amazon an advantage in acquiring defense contracts and expand connections within the world of intelligence. Amazon was close to closing a $10 billion JEDI contract with the Pentagon but lost the contract to Microsoft (MSFT  ). The company remains in a current lawsuit battle with the federal government citing unfair tactics.

Despite the setback, Amazon's delivery services have remained in high demand. Amazon has hired 175,000 new employees to keep up with the influx of deliveries. In addition, the company has raised into average salary for tech and corporate positions to $150,000 per year, with new hires set to start on a work-from-home basis, but then slowly return to the office as the coronavirus pandemic subsides.

Jane Oates, president of the nonprofit WorkingNation and a former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor, said that Amazon is different from other companies in that it's thinking about its future workforce. For example, it announced a program last year to retrain 100,000 of its workers for tech jobs by 2025.

"They're not only looking for the jobs that need to be done today, but they're also looking at what's next," she said.