Amazon is joining other hi tech giants Twitter and Meta in dramatically reducing its staff this fall..The New York Times reports the Jeff Bezos-owned company, the second largest employer in the United States, with 1.6 million staff as of Dec. 31, 2021, is planning on firing about 10,000 beginning sometime this week..Amazon reduced its staff by 100,000 through attrition in the second quarter of this year..The move comes after Bezos gave singer Dolly Parton $100 million as part of an humanitarian award on the weekend. Bezos says he will give away most of his $124 billion wealth to worthwhile causes..The job cuts would come from Amazon’s devices unit, home of its voice assistant, Alexa, as well as its retail division and human resources organization, says the Times report, adding the total number of layoffs “remains fluid.”.As was the case with Twitter and Meta, a slowdown in revenues, both real and expected, is behind the layoffs, with Amazon warning just weeks ago it was seeing a decline in sales activity, even as the holiday season, it busiest time of year, saying consumers and businesses had less money to spend due to rising prices..Usually, Amazon hires during the holiday shopping season, but CEO Andy Jassy has been in a cost-cutting mode to preserve cash as the company confronts slowing sales and a gloomy global economy..Amid a hiring freeze since the beginning of 2022, Amazon shut down its telehealth service, discontinued a video-calling projector for kids, closed all but one of its US call centres, eliminated its roving delivery robot, closed the doors of unperforming stores and is cancelling or delaying the opening of new warehouse locations..Amazon’s third-quarter earnings rattled investors, causing shares to drop in the area of 13% and the first time the company’s market cap fell below $1 trillion since April 2020..The company’s 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..Shares of Amazon were down about 2.5% Monday..Two weeks ago, Twitter laid off approximately 4,000 staff, while Meta released nearly 11,000 employees, 13% of its workforce.
Amazon is joining other hi tech giants Twitter and Meta in dramatically reducing its staff this fall..The New York Times reports the Jeff Bezos-owned company, the second largest employer in the United States, with 1.6 million staff as of Dec. 31, 2021, is planning on firing about 10,000 beginning sometime this week..Amazon reduced its staff by 100,000 through attrition in the second quarter of this year..The move comes after Bezos gave singer Dolly Parton $100 million as part of an humanitarian award on the weekend. Bezos says he will give away most of his $124 billion wealth to worthwhile causes..The job cuts would come from Amazon’s devices unit, home of its voice assistant, Alexa, as well as its retail division and human resources organization, says the Times report, adding the total number of layoffs “remains fluid.”.As was the case with Twitter and Meta, a slowdown in revenues, both real and expected, is behind the layoffs, with Amazon warning just weeks ago it was seeing a decline in sales activity, even as the holiday season, it busiest time of year, saying consumers and businesses had less money to spend due to rising prices..Usually, Amazon hires during the holiday shopping season, but CEO Andy Jassy has been in a cost-cutting mode to preserve cash as the company confronts slowing sales and a gloomy global economy..Amid a hiring freeze since the beginning of 2022, Amazon shut down its telehealth service, discontinued a video-calling projector for kids, closed all but one of its US call centres, eliminated its roving delivery robot, closed the doors of unperforming stores and is cancelling or delaying the opening of new warehouse locations..Amazon’s third-quarter earnings rattled investors, causing shares to drop in the area of 13% and the first time the company’s market cap fell below $1 trillion since April 2020..The company’s 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..Shares of Amazon were down about 2.5% Monday..Two weeks ago, Twitter laid off approximately 4,000 staff, while Meta released nearly 11,000 employees, 13% of its workforce.
