Amazon layoffs: 10K job cuts expected to begin this week, report says

SEATTLE — In what would be the largest job cuts in the online-retail behemoth’s history, Amazon plans to begin laying off roughly 10,000 people in corporate and technology roles this week, according to a report from The New York Times.

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Citing “people with knowledge of the matter,” the Times reported that the cuts will be concentrated in Amazon’s devices organization, “including the voice-assistant Alexa, as well as at its retail division and in human resources.”

Brad Glasser, an Amazon spokesman, declined to comment to the Times on the report.

If executed fully, the layoffs would represent less than 1% of Amazon’s estimated global workforce of more than 1.5 million and 3% of its corporate staff, CNBC reported.

Amazon’s pending layoffs are the latest headcount reduction announced among technology companies, with Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta confirming last week that its slashing its staff by 13%, or about 11,000 employees, while Twitter laid off roughly half its employees in the days following billionaire Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover of the social media platform.

Meanwhile, Lyft, Stripe, Snap and other tech firms have laid off workers in recent months, the Times reported.

Amazon closed 2019 with an estimated 798,000 employees, a figure that more than doubled to 1.6 million full- and part-time workers by Dec. 31, 2021, CNBC reported.

The company previously announced plans to freeze hiring for corporate roles in its retail business before tightening its belt in other areas.

As per CNBC: “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.”

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