AlthoughAmazon has been at the forefront of technology that has displacedtraditional jobs, it has also rapidly expanded its workforce inrecent years.

Few companies have a keener understanding of how technology istransforming work than Amazon, the online retail giant whosediscount deals and rapid delivery have spelled the demise ofshopping malls all over the world.

It's fitting that Amazon is bracing for future technologicalchange by spending $700 million over the next six years to retrainabout 100,000 U.S. employees, or roughly a third of its domesticworkforce. That amounts to $7,000 per retrained employee.

The company tells the Wall Street Journal the training will be freefor employees and entirely voluntary. It said it will help workersdevelop skills that will open up more advancedemployment to them in or outside of the company.

Related: Prepare for a skills shift: What employers need todo to adapt their workforce

Training opportunities will vary, from programs teachinglow-level warehouse workers how to operate more complicatedmachinery to ones that teach computer programming to officeemployees in nontechnical roles.

Although Amazon has been at the forefront of technology that hasdisplaced traditional jobs, it has also rapidly expanded itsworkforce in recent years. It has nearly doubled its workforcesince the end of 2016, when it reported 344,000 employees, althoughroughly 80,000 of the new workers came over from Whole Foods whenAmazon acquired that company.

With the retraining effort, Amazon has the chance to show theworld that automation will not render much of humanityunemployable. Instead, say optimists, new technology will noteliminate human labor, but simply change it.

Ironically, the other factor likely influencing the company'sdecision is the fact that unemployment now is so low. In such atight labor market, employers are struggling to find and retaintalent. Amazon's decision to raise its minimum wage to $15 last year wasanother indication that it was under pressure to attractworkers.

Read more: 

• Reskilling and upskilling becoming biggertalent-management priorities
• Employee skills gap threatens America's economicgrowth
• Employers will need to hire for digital skillstalent to survive