Amazon to lay off thousands of employees – source

Nov 14 (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc ( AMZN.O ) plans to lay off about 10,000 employees in corporate and technology roles starting this week, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday, in what will amount to biggest reduction to date.

The cuts, previously reported by the New York Times, will represent about 3% of Amazon̵[ads1]7;s corporate workforce. The exact number could vary as businesses within Amazon assess their priorities, the source told Reuters.

The online retailer plans to eliminate jobs in its device 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 employees remained unclear.

The source attributed the reduction to the uncertain macroeconomic environment facing Amazon and other companies.

The news follows a wave of layoffs across the tech sector, which is on recession alert after years of brisk hiring. Just last week, Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc ( META.O ) said it would cut more than 11,000 jobs, or 13% of its workforce, to curb costs.

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

On a call with reporters last month, CFO Brian Olsavsky said the company saw signs of tightening household budgets for shopping and continued to struggle with high inflation and energy costs.

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

Amazon’s device unit has in recent years posted an annual operating loss of more than $5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. The company has considered whether to focus on new features for Alexa when some customers use the voice assistant for only a few tasks, the report said.

Across the company, including warehouse and transportation jobs, which made Amazon’s workforce more than 1.5 million as of Sept. 30, the planned cuts amounted to less than 1% of the retailer’s workforce.

Amazon shares have lost more than 40% of their value this year. They were down 1.1% at $99.67 on Monday afternoon.

Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in Palo Alto, California. Editing by Arun Koyyur and Matthew Lewis

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