Amazon Initiates Layoff Affecting 18K Employees: Report

  • As announced in NovemberAmazon.Com, Inc AMZN has reportedly initiated a round of record layoffs affecting over 18,000 employees as it battled slowing online sales growth and a possible recession.
  • In early January, CEO Andy Jassy said he expects the downsizing to help the company pursue its long-term opportunities with a more robust cost structure.
  • Amazon’s Devices and Services group, known for the Alexa digital assistant and Echo smart speakers, were the hardest hit as the downsizing began in 2022.
  • The latest round will mostly affect the retail division and human resources, Bloomberg reports.
  • While the cuts represent 1% of the workforce, including hundreds of thousands of hourly warehouse and delivery personnel, they amount to 6% of Amazon’s 350,000 global corporate strength.
  • The leading online retailer dedicated 2022 to adjusting to the pandemic recovery as shoppers went cautious about their spending. 
  • Amazon paused warehouse openings and suspended hiring in its retail group extending it to the company’s corporate staff and began slashing jobs.
  • Amazon joined tech peers, including Cisco Systems Inc CSCOIntel Corp INTCMeta Platforms Inc METAQualcomm Inc QCOM, and Salesforce Inc CRM which trimmed down their workforce to control costs.
  • Microsoft Corp (MSFT) looked to downsize by 5% of its employee strength or 11,000 jobs.
  • The job cuts will affect several engineering divisions.
  • Microsoft will likely lay off as much as one-third of its recruiting staff.
  • Microsoft has put a freeze on hiring and may not resume its regular hiring rate for one or two years.
  • Price Action: AMZN shares traded higher by 0.54% at $96.57 in the premarket on the last check Wednesday.
  • Photo Via Wikimedia Commons
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