Thousands of Amazon employees won't have a happy holiday season if news of massive layoffs at the company, reported by The New York Times, is true.
About 10,000 staff are expected to be cut, the newspaper reported, citing anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter, making it the largest job reduction in the e-commerce company's history. Rounds of layoffs could start as early as this week.
BREAKING: Amazon plans to lay off roughly 10k staff this week
— Margot Rubin (@margot_rubin) November 14, 2022
It's been a brutal year for layoffs in tech. pic.twitter.com/lTnfZVDL1o
Those expected to be laid off work primarily in technology and corporate roles and are not hourly or warehouse workers, those in charge of getting your packages to you on time. Employees who work on Amazon devices like Alexa or in retail or human-resources divisions would be most affected by the layoffs, according to sources.
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Though 10,000 is a huge number, it represents just 3% of Amazon's corporate employees and less than 1% of the 1.6 million workers employed worldwide at the end of 2021.
News of Amazon's planned layoffs comes on the heels of the Nov. 9 announcement by Facebook parent Meta Platforms that it plans to cut 11,000 jobs and mass reductions this month in the number of staff and contractor positions at Twitter. The huge layoffs at Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter demonstrate that some of the world's biggest tech companies are girding for recession as consumers tighten their belts in response to rampant inflation.
