A lot of Amazon employees may be out of a job right before the holiday season.
As reported by Reuters, a source at the company has told the outlet that Amazon is preparing to undergo a round of mass layoffs. The source, which spoke with Reuters under the condition of anonymity, said that the company will lay off thousands of employees as soon as this week. The number could reach as high as 10,000 employees let go.
If the layoffs reach that number, they will represent around three percent of the company’s corporate workforce. It would also be the most significant round of employees laid off by the retail and technology giant. According to the source, “the exact number may vary as businesses within Amazon review their priorities.”
The online retailer plans to eliminate jobs in its devices organization, which makes voice-controlled “Alexa” gadgets and home-security cameras, as well as in its human-resources and retail divisions, the person said. Amazon’s time frame for informing staff remained unclear.
The source said, according to Amazon, the currently uncertain macroeconomic environment is to blame for the layoffs.
The news comes the week after Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp, laid off 13,000 employees. It was the largest reduction in the company’s workforce (around thirteen percent) and a hard hit to Mark Zuckerberg’s plans to pivot the company towards the metaverse.
Elon Musk, after acquiring Twitter a few weeks ago, laid off around half of the company’s full-time employees as well as thousands of contractors. This week, it was reported that Musk let go about eighty percent of the company’s contract workers as well. Between the two moves, Twitter’s workforce fell from an estimated 13,000 to under 5,000.
Even Apple has admitted that it is slowing down hiring for now, but the company has stopped short of announcing any layoffs.
Related coverage: Jeff Bezos to give away much of his fortune.
