Amazon will reportedly cut 10,000 jobs this week: The teams that may go, what’s hurting and more – Times of India

After Facebook-parent Meta, ecommerce giant Amazon is reportedly set to cut thousands of jobs. According to a report in the New York Times, Amazon.com plans to cut about 10,000 jobs. Teams are reportedly making the decisions on where to reduce headcount as part of Amazon’s annual planning process and the announcement may come as soon as this week. This will be the largest-ever headcount reduction as the e-commerce giant braces for slower growth and a possible recession. Amazon fired thousands to survive the dotcom bust in the early 2000s. Since then, the company has gone through occasional periods of largely self-imposed austerity, sometimes halting hiring for months but there have not been any widespread layoffs.
Amazon employed 1.54 million people at the end of September. The 10,000 workers reportedly represent 3 percent of the company’s corporate ranks and 1 percent of its overall workforce.

The businesses that may be most hurt
The layoffs are likely to target Amazon’s devices group, responsible for the Echo smart speakers and Alexa digital assistant, as well as Amazon’s retail divisions and human resources, according to people familiar with the matter. Amazon’s Devices and Services group, which makes its consumer electronics and Alexa, is particularly vulnerable to downsizing following years of big expansion. From 2017 to 2018, Amazon reportedly doubled staff on Alexa and Echo devices to 10,000 engineers. The unit has recorded operating losses of $5 billion in some recent years.
Warning signs
The warning signs have been there on the wall for some time now. Last month, the Seattle-based company predicted that the holiday sales period would be the slowest in its history, spooking Wall Street and plunging its shares. Like other online companies that have announced job cuts, Amazon too has spent much of this year adjusting to a slowdown in e-commerce growth as shoppers returned to pre-pandemic habits.

Amazon is said to have delayed warehouse openings and froze hiring in its retail group, before broadening the freeze across the company’s corporate groups. In recent weeks, CEO Andy Jassy has been busy finding cuts among experimental and unprofitable businesses. In recent months, Amazon has also closed or cut down on several businesses including Amazon Care, its service providing primary and urgent health care that failed to find enough customers; Scout, the cooler-size home delivery robot, and Fabric.com, a subsidiary that sold sewing supplies.
Cost cutting has been on since months
Some longtime Amazon employees also told Bloomberg that the cost-cutting witnessed in the company in the last few months has been the most severe they’ve ever experienced. Two weeks ago, Amazon announced a company wide hiring freeze that may last up to March 2023.