That recession is looming large is quite certain now as there are reports of Amazon planning to ask about 10,000 of its employees to leave.
The impacted units of the tech company are probably those that are not making profits, as per media reports. That means, about one per cent of the workforce will be let go from the about 1.6 million-strong global workforce of the Company. It also means that not more than three per cent of its corporate staff will be impacted.
The layoffs may begin this week itself, as per New York Times.
The move has come after at least a month’s careful consideration and assessment. Members of the devices department, including the group that worked on Alexa, the voice assistant, the retail division, and the HR team are expected to be impacted as per media reports.
With the purchasing power of consumers being adversely affected due to inflation, the online retailer had already indicated that growth in the holiday season was expected to be slower than was anticipated.
Hiring at Amazon had already been slowed down and later paused. Two months ago, a hiring freeze was imposed in many divisions.
Amazon had wound up Amazon Care, its unit that provided primary and urgent health care services. It had also shut down Scout, the home delivery robot. “As of October 20, 2022, we will no longer sell products on fabric.com,” says the notification on the fabric.com website, which was also an Amazon company.
