Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, will begin laying off 10,000 employees in corporate and technology roles beginning this week, according to a report from CNBC.
According to the report, the layoffs would be the largest in Amazon’s history and would have a massive effect on the company’s devices organization, retail division, and human resources.
About 3% of Amazon’s corporate staff and less than 1% of its global workforce will be affected by this decision.
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The holiday shopping season is critical for Amazon, and usually, one where the company has increased its headcount to meet demand. But Andy Jassy, who took over as CEO in July 2021, has been in cost-cutting mode to preserve cash as the company confronts slowing sales and a gloomy global economy.
The company has already announced plans to freeze hiring for corporate roles in its retail business. In recent months, Amazon shut down its telehealth service, discontinued a quirky, video-calling projector for kids, closed all but one of its U.S. call centers, axed its roving delivery robot, shuttered underperforming brick-and-mortar chains, and is closing, canceling or delaying some new warehouse locations.
Amazon reported disappointing third-quarter earnings in October that spooked investors and caused shares to sink more than 13%. It marked the first time Amazon’s market cap fell below $1 trillion since April 2020, and the report was the second time this year that Amazon’s results have been enough to spark a double-digit percentage sell-off. The sell-off continued for days after the report and erased almost all of the stock’s pandemic surge.
Amazon stock is down about 41% for the year, more than the 14% drop in the S&P 500, and is on pace for its worst year since 2008.
Amazon is the latest company that has announced widespread layoffs in preparation for a likely economic collapse.
Last week, Meta (Facebook / Instagram parent company) announced that it will be laying off more than 13% of its staff, or more than 11,000 employees.
Twitter laid off approximately half its workforce in the days following Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the company. Early this month, Lyft cut 13% of its staff.
According to an internal memo addressed to Disney’s CEO on Friday, the woke firm would soon begin layoffs, implementing a targeted hiring freeze, and limiting business travel to essential only, as part of a wide cost-cutting initiative.
