Amazon plans to lay off approximately 10,000 corporate and technology workers possibly as soon as this week, according to a report by the New York Times, making it the latest tech giant to see mass employee cuts.
The report, which was based on anonymous sources “with knowledge of the matter,” stated that the cuts will be focused in the devices organization (which is responsible for Alexa), the retail division and human resources. The reduction would represent 3% of Amazon’s corporate workforce but less than 1% of its 1.5 million worldwide workforce.
Layoffs have been announced or have already happened at several tech giants in recent weeks, including Twitter, Meta (the parent company of Instagram and Facebook), Lyft, Stripe and Salesforce.
Amazon’s growth abruptly halted as COVID-19 pandemic restrictions ended and inflation skyrocketed, the report continued. The company had seen massive growth during the pandemic, which shuttered many small businesses and led to more people buying online rather than at brick-and-mortar stores and thousands of dollars in stimulus from the federal government.
Amazon stock is at its lowest price since 2020.
The report stated that Echo and Alexa in particular have a low-profit margin and have not caught on among consumers as much as had been hoped.
Source: khon2
