Amazon to deliver 70,000 holiday jobs

• CEO Jeff Bezos made rare media tour to talk about Amazon%27s outlook
• Seasonal jobs will be located with Amazon%27s fulfillment centers
• Hiring boom for this year%27s holiday shopping is up 40%25 year over year

SAN FRANCISCO -- Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos is going on a hiring binge to keep up with deliveries from the online retail juggernaut.

The electronic commerce pioneer is planning to add more than 70,000 full-time seasonal U.S. jobs. The positions will be located within its fulfillment centers for the holidays and are intended to meet increased seasonal retail demand. The hiring boom for this year's seasonal work is up 40% from a year ago, when the Internet's retail giant hired 50,000 seasonal workers.

Shares of Amazon are up about 24% this year on expectations for continued growth in sales from media, Kindle devices, its online super store, and Web services.

Known for product secrecy, Bezos made a rare media tour to engage the business world on Amazon's bright future. Amazon's founder said that its Publishing and Studios businesses are "just good business in their own right," in an interview with USA TODAY's Ed Baig.

The Amazon chief said he wouldn't want to spend most of his time as a company pitchman. That's because he appears knee deep at all times in the thick of company product developments as the company eyes expansion. "My very favorite thing is to sit with a product design team and talk about what we're going to do next," Bezos told USA TODAY.

The company says this year it has converted 7,000 jobs from temporary positions to full time ones.