Amazon could lay off as many as 10,000 employees this week, according to a new report from The New York Times. The move follows big firings at Twitter and Meta, which last week announced it would lay off 11,000 workers. Amazon’s layoffs are likely to focus on the company’s devices business (which includes many smart home products powered by Alexa), human resources and its retail division.
10,000 employees would represent 3 percent of the company’s corporate workforce and 1 percent of its overall workforce, a number that reminds us of how large Amazon has grown.
There are recent signs that Amazon may be rethinking the place of Alexa and first-party devices in its priorities. At the very least, CEO Andy Jassy seems determined to reduce his investment in them.” Amazon spokesman Brad Glasser said last week in response to a Wall Street Journal report that said the company was “weighing” changes to its devices business: “We are as optimistic today about the future of Alexa as we have ever been, and it remains an important area of business and investment for Amazon.” However, the division has posted an operating loss of $5 billion in recent years.
The expected downturn in the U.S. economy has caused the tech giant to dramatically slow the pace of hiring, or even freeze hiring altogether. Similar to Meta, Amazon saw record momentum in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and over-invested in expansion based on those record profits. in early November, Amazon said it would “suspend hiring new incremental hires in our corporate workforce,” after the company just doubled the salary cap for its corporate employees earlier this year. The company just doubled its corporate payroll cap earlier this year.
Some companies are realizing after the fact that their layoffs were too large, and Twitter has reportedly asked some corporate employees to return to their jobs in a high-profile firing that saw a half of the company’s workforce laid off. But it continues to lay off workers elsewhere, most recently due to firing thousands of contractor employees without warning.
Amazon’s layoffs may be more planned and won’t necessarily be felt in the company’s upcoming product pipeline, but will still put thousands of jobs at risk as the global economic downturn continues. If the 10,000 figure proves accurate, it would mark the largest layoff in Amazon’s history.
