Amazon begins mass layoffs | wealth

On Tuesday, the company told regional authorities in California that it was laying off about 260 employees at various facilities that employ data scientists, software engineers and other company employees. These job cuts would take effect from January 17.

Amazon wouldn’t specify how many more layoffs might be in the works, aside from those confirmed by California’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, also known as WARN, which requires the company to give 60 days’ notice if they Have 75 or more full-time employees or part-time employees. Amazon employs more than 1.5 million workers worldwide, mostly made up of hourly workers.

The online retail giant, like other tech and social media giants, has posted sizeable gains during the COVID-19 pandemic as home-from-home shoppers bought more items online. However, sales growth slowed as the worst of the pandemic subsided and consumers became less reliant on e-commerce.

The Seattle-based company reported two straight losses this year, mostly due to write-downs on the value of its stock investment in electric vehicle startup Rivian Automotive. The company returned to profitability in the third quarter, but investors were gloomy about weaker-than-expected earnings and lackluster guidance for the current quarter, which is usually good for retailers given the holiday shopping season.

To cut costs, Amazon has already scrapped some of its projects – including subsidiary fabric.com, Amazon Care and cooler home delivery robot Scout. It has also reduced its physical footprint by delaying or canceling plans to fill some new warehouses around the country. And Brian Olsavsky, Amazon’s chief financial officer, said the company is preparing for a potentially slower growth streak and will be cautious about hiring in the near future.

Mass layoffs are rare at Amazon, but the company had rounds of downsizing in 2018 and 2001 during the dot-com crash. On the warehousing side, the e-commerce giant is typically reducing its workforce through attrition.

Given the high costs, the company announced earlier this month that it would suspend hiring of its corporate workforce, contributing to the freeze imposed on its retail division a few weeks earlier. But the layoffs weren’t far behind. Employees who work at various entities, including voice assistant Alexa and cloud gaming platform Amazon Luna, said they were laid off on Tuesday, according to LinkedIn posts. Some of them were based in Seattle, where the company is headquartered.

“As part of our annual operational plan review process, we always review each of our businesses and what we think we should change,” Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said in a statement. “While we’ve been through this, given the current macroeconomic environment (as well as several years of rapid hiring), some teams are making adjustments, which in some cases means certain roles are no longer required.”

In a statement published on the company’s website, Dave Limp, senior vice president of Devices and Services, said Amazon is consolidating some teams and programs. He said those fired in the process were notified Tuesday and the company would work with them to “provide support,” including assistance in finding new roles. According to Limp, if an employee cannot find a new position within the company, Amazon offers severance pay, support with external job placement and so-called transitional payments.

The retail giant follows other tech giants that have cut jobs in recent weeks. Among them, Facebook parent Meta said last week it would lay off 11,000 employees, about 13% of its workforce. And Elon Musk, the new Twitter CEO, halved the company’s workforce this month.

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