Amazon is planning to cut about 10,000 jobs from its corporate workforce as part of its effort to cut loose lossmaking or underperforming units of its business, a person familiar with its plans said.
The person said the precise number had yet to be finalised. A cut of about 10,000 jobs would represent around 3 per cent of Amazon’s corporate workforce.
It comes as part of a review into the ecommerce and cloud group’s performance, led by chief executive Andy Jassy.
Last week it was confirmed that Amazon’s unit behind voice assistant Alexa was among those being analysed for cost savings. The person said job cuts were being assessed on a “team by team” basis, with the first firings potentially happening as soon as this week.
An Amazon spokesman declined to comment. The size and timing of potential lay-offs was first reported by The New York Times.
The culling would be the largest in Amazon’s history, and in the same ballpark as recent sweeping reductions at other technology companies as they grapple with tumbling share prices. Last week, Facebook-parent Meta said it would shed 11,000 roles, representing about 13 per cent of the entire company.
Amazon’s workforce most recently stood at about 1.5mn, though the vast majority are frontline employees its warehouses and other logistics facilities. While that employee base fluctuates with seasonal demand — and doubled during the coronavirus pandemic — corporate lay-offs have been rare.
The planned cuts come as Amazon faces soaring costs and slowing growth in its online stores business. Its market capitalisation has fallen about 42 per cent since the beginning of this year to about $1tn.
Investors have been concerned about a pullback in consumer spending amid broader macroeconomic pressures, while overeager expansion during the pandemic has left Amazon with wasted logistics capacity, forcing it to cancel or delay planned facilities.
Amazon’s shares were down about 1.4 per cent to $99.41 in Monday afternoon trading.
It has told investors it would decrease its capital expenditure on ecommerce by about $10bn this year compared to 2021, following two years of heavy investment in building out its two- and one-day delivery network. Earlier this month, Beth Galetti, Amazon’s head of human resources, said a hiring “pause” would be put in place for at least the “next few months”.
News of the lay-offs came on the same day Amazon founder and former chief executive Jeff Bezos said he planned to give away most of his $124bn fortune.