The latest tech firm to announce plans to reduce staff is Amazon. According to a report published by the New York Times on Monday, the e-commerce giant is considering eliminating over 10,000 positions, which would represent almost 3% of its total staff and would be the greatest wave of layoffs in the history of the firm.
According to the Times, employees who work in the company’s retail and human resources departments will also be affected by the layoffs, in addition to those working in the section that is largely responsible for Alexa voice services. It’s possible that the layoffs will happen as soon as this week.
A request for comment was sent to Amazon, but they did not react right away.
The most recent round of layoffs is a direct response to falling sales. Amazon’s earnings for the third quarter showed an uptick, but the company’s total profitability fell short of forecasts. As a direct consequence of this, Amazon has started reducing spending in several areas of its company.
Amazon Scout was the company’s project to develop robots for home delivery. Over the last several months, CEO Andy Jassy decided to suspend testing on Amazon Scout. Fabric.com, an established e-commerce platform that sold fabric online, as well as the Amazon Care tele-health and nursing service, have both been discontinued as a result of his actions. According to the Times, between April and September, the corporation saw a reduction in staff of around 80,000 as a result of both the layoffs and a high rate of natural attrition. In September, Amazon placed a hiring freeze for small teams, and then early this month, the company placed a block on recruiting throughout the whole company.
The turmoil that is now affecting the IT sector includes the impending layoffs at Amazon. A number of well-known technology businesses, including Twitter, Microsoft, Meta, and Google, have recently been in the news for laying off employees.
