Amazon reportedly cutting 10,000 employees starting this week

Amazon is reportedly carrying out massive layoffs and will be cutting about 10,000 employees. Based on the reports, the job cuts will start this week and will mostly affect those in the company’s retail, human resources, technology, and corporate units.

As per Fox Business News, the upcoming terminations at Amazon were revealed by sources who are familiar with the matter. This would be the company’s largest layoffs in its entire history. It was said that the total job cut is equivalent to three percent of Amazon’s corporate employees and one percent of its total workforce worldwide.

It was noted that the e-commerce firm founded by Jeff Bezos already issued a warning to employees who are working in underperforming divisions. They were previously told to prepare and look for another job because the company is terminating staff due to the unstable economic situation.

This decision comes not long after its chief executive officer, Andy Jassy, started a cost-cutting review of Amazon. The review includes the cutback on businesses that showed poor performances and low-profit results.

Prior to these layoffs, Amazon also stopped its job recruitment activities for corporate positions. The company’s senior vice president, Beth Galetti, explained through a letter to employees that the move was made by the CEO and the leadership team because of the uncertainties in the economy.

"We are facing an unusual macro-economic environment, and want to balance our hiring and investments with being thoughtful about this economy," she said.

Galetti further revealed the company had already determined the divisions that would be shut down. Adding that the job hiring freeze will also continue for a few months more. “The company expects to keep this pause in place for the next few months as it continues to monitor the economy.”

Meanwhile, CNBC reported that Amazon also closed its telehealth service, cancelled its video-calling projector service for kids, took down its delivery robot, shuttered some of its physical stores, and closed all but one of its call centers in the United States. These steps showed how much the company is doing to cut on costs to keep the business going.

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