- Amazon plans to lay off roughly 10,000 white-collar employees, The New York Times reported Monday.
- The cuts will mainly affect Amazon’s devices, human resources, and retail divisions, the paper said.
- Tech companies have laid off tens of thousands of workers this year as the US economy falters.
Amazon plans to lay off some 10,000 employees in tech and corporate roles, The New York Times reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation.
The e-commerce juggernaut will mainly slash jobs in its human resources, retail, and devices divisions, the people said. The devices division is responsible for products like the Alexa assistant. Layoffs could start as soon as this week, according to the Times.
Large tech companies have cut jobs left and right in 2022 as the US economy heads into increasingly uncertain territory.
After completing his buyout of Twitter, Elon Musk promptly laid off roughly half of the social media firm’s 7,500 employees. Earlier in November, Meta, formerly known as Facebook, trimmed its staff by 11,000 people — 13% of its workforce. The fintech giant Stripe has laid off 14% of its staff, or about 1,100 people.
Amazon recently paused corporate hiring, citing an “unusual macro-economic environment.” The company’s impending cuts could be the largest in its history, per the Times. Ten thousand employees represents roughly 3% of Amazon’s corporate workforce, the outlet said.
The US economy is in a strange and precarious place. The stock market is down this year, but unemployment is still low. Goods from cars to food are expensive due to high inflation, which the Federal Reserve is trying to calm by increasing interest rates and slowing spending. Many economists are convinced the country is tumbling toward a recession.
Correction: November 14, 2022 — An earlier version of this story misstated the scale of Stripe’s layoffs. About 1,100 jobs were affected.