Amazon to lay off thousands of workers, reports say
Ecommerce giant Amazon is set to lay off thousands of corporate workers as soon as this week, according to multiple media reports.
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon is seeking to lay off as many as 10,000 people, or 3% of the retailer's white-collar workforce. According to the Journal, cuts are likely in its money-losing hardware division, which includes digital voice assistant Alexa.
A spokesperson for Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.
The company's chief financial officer, Brian Olsavsky, told investors in an October 27 earnings call that Amazon was "taking actions to tighten our belt, including pausing hiring in certain businesses and winding down products and services where we believe our resources are better spent elsewhere."
The online retailer is facing a tough consumer environment after two years of pandemic-fueled growth. After doubling its warehouse footprint last year, Amazon's sales have slowed and the company is looking to slow its expansion. The company reported two consecutive quarters of losses earlier this year before returning to profitability.
"It has lost market share in retail, has seen other parts of the business slow and has suffered a very serious erosion in profitability," GlobalData analyst Neil Saunders said in a note. "Against this backdrop it is not surprising that Amazon is looking to make the company more buoyant by ditching weight. It has already thrown some ailing divisions overboard and is now looking to reduce its crew numbers with labor cuts."
In moving to shutter a number of non-core business lines, Amazon in recent months has shut down subsidiary Fabric.com; stopped work on Scout, a home delivery robot; and closed Amazon Care, its in-home care service. Two weeks ago the company also froze its corporate hiring, citing the "unusual macroeconomic environment."
Amazon stock has lost 40% of its value since the start of the year among a broader stock market rout.
The layoffs are also the latest sign of a slowdown in the formerly fast-growing tech sector. Last week, Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, laid off 11,000 workers in the first staff cuts in the company's history. Layoffs have also hit Stripe, Twitter and Lyft.
Twitter also recently moved to dismiss roughly 3,700 workers as new owner Elon Musk acts to cut costs at the embattled social media platform.