SAN FRANCISCO, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Amazon on Wednesday announced that the company ranked first on LinkedIn's annual Top Companies list, which identifies the most sought-after places to work in the United States using data from LinkedIn's members, marking the second consecutive year it has topped the annual list.

       The list is designed to help professionals identify the best companies to grow their careers. LinkedIn's methodology evaluates how companies are able to attract and retain the best talent, including through promotions, opportunities for employees of all backgrounds to gain new skills, gender diversity, and how much recruiters from other companies search for employees currently working at Amazon, the announcement said.

       According to Amazon, in 2021, the company created more than 200,000 jobs in the United States, where it currently employs more than 1.1 million people.

       As part of its pledge to help upskill the American workforce, Amazon recently announced a commitment to fully fund college tuition, books, and fees, as well as high school diplomas, college preparatory courses, and English as a Second Language (ESL) proficiency certifications, for its front-line hourly employees though the popular Career Choice program, the company said.

       The program is part of Amazon's pledge to invest more than 1.2 billion U.S. dollars to upskill more than 300,000 employees by 2025.