Amazon to lay off 10,000 as losses increase
Alexa, HR and retail jobs to go
Amazon plans to terminate around 10,000 employees from business and technical jobs starting as early as this week.
Citing people with knowledge of the matter, the New York Times claims that employees in Amazon's retail and HR departments will be affected by the cuts.
Alexa, Amazon's virtual personal assistant, may also lose some staff.
A source said the total number of people who will be let go remains fluid, and that the plan will probably be implemented one team at a time rather than all at once.
Ten thousand people would be the largest single layoff in Amazon's history, although would still make up less than 1% of the company's worldwide workforce of more than 1.6 million full- and part-time workers.
Amazon laid off around 1,500 employees in 2001 after the dot-com bust, but its workforce has grown significantly over the last 20 years.
The news isn't altogether surprising, given the company's tight cost-cutting initiatives.
The ecommerce giant had its most lucrative period in history during the pandemic, as customers rushed to online shopping and businesses flocked to its cloud computing services.
Amazon expanded and experimented on the back of that success, more than doubling its workforce in just two years.
However, early this year, when the pandemic's bullwhip snapped, Amazon's growth dropped to its lowest pace in two decades.
Earlier this month, Amazon announced that it would halt corporate recruiting in an attempt to strike a balance between investments and the current economic situation.
"We anticipate keeping this pause in place for the next few months and will continue to monitor what we're seeing in the economy and the business to adjust as we think makes sense," said Amazon SVP Beth Galetti.
Notably, the Alexa division, which has over 10,000 employees, is under the watchful eye of Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal last week.
It claimed that Amazon's devices unit had an operational loss of more than $5 billion in recent years.
The company is reportedly mulling over whether or not it should give additional features to the Alexa voice assistant to make it more attractive.
Amazon has also predicted a slowdown in sales growth during the traditionally profitable Christmas season.
In a call with reporters last month, Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said the firm was continuing to struggle with rising inflation and energy expenses, and that it was beginning to see symptoms of tighter family budgets for purchasing.
Amazon is not the only company feeling the pressure from the world's current macroeconomic conditions.
Facebook parent Meta let go 11,000 people last Monday, or 13% of its staff. Twitter also reduced its workforce by almost 50%, following the sale of the company to Elon Musk.
Google parent Alphabet has announced a hiring freeze beginning July, and Apple has said it will slow its hiring process in 2023.