Amazon to lay off thousands of employees

Amazon.com Inc is planning to lay off around 10,000 employees in corporate and technology roles beginning this week, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday (Nov 14), in what would amount to its biggest such reduction to date.

The cuts, earlier reported by the New York Times, would represent about three per cent of Amazon's corporate staff. The exact number may vary as businesses within Amazon review their priorities, the source told Reuters.

The online retailer plans to eliminate jobs in its devices organisation, 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 attributed the reduction to the uncertain macroeconomic environment faced by Amazon and other companies.

The news follows a wave of layoffs across the technology sector, which is wary of recession after years of rapid hiring.

Just last week, Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc said it would cut more than 11,000 jobs, or 13 per cent of its workforce, to rein in costs.

Seattle-based Amazon is predicting a slowdown in sales growth for the typically lucrative holiday season.

On a call with reporters last month, Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said the company saw signs of tighter household budgets for shopping, and it continued to wrestle with high inflation and energy costs.

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It since has said it would freeze incremental corporate hiring for several months.

Amazon's devices unit in some recent years has posted an annual operating loss of more than US$5 billion (S$7 billion), the Wall Street Journal reported last week.

The company has weighed whether to focus on new capabilities for Alexa when some customers use the voice assistant for just a few tasks, the report said.

Company-wide, taking warehouse and transportation jobs into account, which made Amazon's headcount more than 1.5 million as of Sept 30, the planned cuts amounted to less than one per cent of the retailer's workforce.

Shares of Amazon have lost more than 40 per cent of their value this year. They were down 1.1 per cent at US$99.67 on Monday afternoon.

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