Posted: Post Date – 11:09 PM, Mon – 11/14/22
Amazon plans to cut about 10,000 jobs “as early as this week.”
New York: Tech giant Amazon is planning to cut 10,000 jobs in the coming days, and the tech world is witnessing a bloodbath after Twitter and Facebook parent Meta slashed staff.
The New York Times said in a report on Monday that Amazon plans to cut about 10,000 jobs “starting as soon as this week” in enterprise and technology jobs.
Although the New York Times said in its report that the total number of layoffs remains “volatile,” the 10,000 people who could be laid off represent about 3 percent of Amazon’s workforce and less than 1 percent of its more than 1.5 million global workforce, which is largely made up of hourly workers.
“The job cuts will be focused on Amazon’s devices organization, including its Alexa voice assistant, as well as its retail division and human resources,” the report said.
Just a few weeks ago, Twitter’s new owner, billionaire Elon Musk, halved the social media workforce, while Meta announced it would lay off 13% of its workforce, or 11,000 employees.
Reports of Amazon’s impending layoffs also came on the same day that founder Jeff Bezos told CNN that he plans to donate most of his $124 billion net worth to charity during his lifetime.
From April to September, the tech giant cut nearly 80,000 jobs, largely by reducing its hourly workers through high attrition rates, The New York Times reported.
“Amazon froze hiring on several smaller teams in September. In October, it stopped filling more than 10,000 open positions in its core retail business. Two weeks ago, it froze corporate hiring across the company for the next few months, including Its cloud computing unit. According to a copy of the talking points seen by The New York Times, the news came so suddenly that recruiters didn’t receive talking points from candidates until nearly a week later.”
The New York Times reported that Amazon “plans to lay off workers during the critical holiday shopping season — when the company typically values stability — a sign of how quickly a worsening global economy is putting pressure on it to cut for years. Overstaffed or underdelivered business.
After experiencing “the most profitable era on record” during the COVID-19 pandemic, where online consumer spending has grown exponentially, Amazon’s growth slowed to two decades as the pandemic’s bullwhip suddenly faded. lowest level.”
During the pandemic, as consumers flock to shop online and companies flock to Amazon’s cloud computing services, the tech giant doubled its workforce in two years and used its proceeds to ” Expand and experiment to find the next big thing”.
However, as the world recovers from the pandemic and consumers shop less online, Amazon faces “high costs from decisions to overinvest and rapidly expand, while changing shopping habits and high inflation dent sales. “
The New York Times said Amazon’s retail business, including its brick-and-mortar and online retail operations and its logistics business, has been “under pressure” following a surge in demand and “rapid expansion” during the pandemic. Amazon said it had pulled back on expansion plans and told investors it saw uncertainty among consumers.
“We’re realistically saying that people’s wallets are affected by a variety of factors,” Treasurer Brian Olsavsky told investors last month, according to The New York Times. He said the company wasn’t sure. where the spending will go, but “we’re prepared for a variety of outcomes.”
The Times report added that Amazon has closed or scaled back several initiatives in recent months, including Amazon Care, which provides primary and emergency health care after failing to find enough customers; Scout, a small delivery robot that employs 400 employees, Fabric.com is a 30-year-old subsidiary that sells sewing supplies.
For Amazon, Devices and Alexa have been seen internally as being at risk of layoffs. The New York Times report said that Alexa and related devices “quickly became a top priority for companies as Amazon raced to create the leading voice assistant that leaders believed could replace phones as the next big consumer interface.”
From 2017 to 2018, Amazon doubled its workforce on Alexa and Echo devices to 10,000 engineers. “At some point, any engineer who gets a job offer at other positions at Amazon should also get a job offer at Alexa,” it said.
