Amazon will create 2,000 jobs in the UK this year, bringing its total permanent British workforce to almost 30,000 people.

The new roles are spread around the country, from the London head office to a growing network of delivery centres.

They include at least 170 jobs at development centres in London, Cambridge and Edinburgh.

The new corporate office in Manchester is also hiring.

The tech giant said it would create a number of high-skilled positions for engineers, software developers, data scientists and cloud and machine learning experts.

The move has already been praised as “a clear vote of confidence in the British economy” by Chancellor Philip Hammond.

He said: “This Government is supporting business to create the high-skilled, high-paid jobs of the future, and these roles will benefit people across the UK, including the cities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Manchester and London.”

The fresh figure is lower than last year’s total of 2,500 new jobs, and well below 2017 when the opening of a new head office helped to add 5,000 roles.

Amazon’s UK country manager Doug Gurr said the company was continuing to invest and grow its British business.

“The UK is a fantastic hub for global talent and the exciting, innovative work that takes place here benefits Amazon’s customers around the world,” he said.

“Whether you are looking for a highly specialised role at one of our fulfilment centres or in a field such as machine learning or flight engineering, we offer a wide variety of opportunities.”

The newest announcement is in addition to Amazon’s commitment to create more than 1,000 new UK apprenticeships over the next two years, which was announced in February.

Alys Key is PA City Reporter.