The 1-million square-foot Amazon fulfillment center in Ruskin welcomed new employees this week.

Amazon has hired hundreds of full-time employees who will pick, pack, and ship items at the facility, which began operations Wednesday.

The huge center, located near Interstate 75 off State Road 674, uses robots to locate order items and move them to employees for processing before shipping.

The Ruskin center handles small items like books, DVDs and other consumer goods.

When fully operational, the center will employ about 1,000 people in the warehouse, which is about the size of 10 Home Depot stores.

The Ruskin center is the second Amazon operation in the state. The fulfillment center in Lakeland, which handles larger goods, opened in late August.

Job seekers can apply online at workatamazonfulfillment.com.