Tech companies are experiencing a difficult season with layoffs and a hiring freeze. Meta, Twitter and Amazon.com Inc also planned to layoff approximately 10,000 employees.
Amazon’s Indian units could also be affected by this cut. Multiple people familiar with the matter told Economic Times that Amazon could lay off several hundred employees from its Indian unit. They said that while the exact number of job cuts in India is unknown, it could be more than 100.
Amazon India has a headcount of 100,000. These layoffs are part the global strategy to address slowing sales.
According to the report, India could see layoffs across engineering and other departments. Multiple people familiar with the situation say that employees in retail, back-office and shared services are most at risk.
On 15 November, Amazon.com Inc reported that it would lay off approximately 10,000 employees in technology and corporate roles starting this week. A person familiar with the matter stated that this would be its largest ever such reduction.
According to the New York Times report, these cuts would affect about 3 percent of Amazon’s corporate staff. According to Reuters, the exact number could vary depending on how Amazon businesses review their priorities.
Amazon reported that it had over 1.6 million employees, both part-time and full-time, as of December 31, 2013. It recently announced that it would stop hiring for the corporate workforce in the coming months.
According to the person, Amazon plans to cut jobs in its devices division, which produces voice-controlled Alexa gadgets and home security cameras. It also plans on reducing its human resources and retail divisions. Amazon has not yet provided any details about the timeframe for informing employees.
According to the source, the decrease was due to the uncertainty in the macroeconomic environment that Amazon and other companies face.
This news comes after a wave of layoffs in the technology sector. After years of rapid hiring, this sector is now wary of recession.
A report quoting sources claims that Twitter had fired Indian employees from the communication and marketing departments.
Last week, Meta Platforms Inc, Facebook’s parent company, announced that it would reduce more than 11,000 jobs (13 percent) to cut costs. According to Reuters, Walt Disney Co had also planned to stop hiring and reduce some jobs. According to a memo, this move is part of the company’s efforts to make Disney+ profitable in a time of economic uncertainty.
Amazon, a Seattle-based company, is anticipating a slowdown of sales growth during the lucrative holiday season. Brian Olsavsky, chief financial officer, said last month that Amazon saw signs of tighter household shopping budgets and continued to struggle with high inflation. Since then, it has stated that it will freeze any incremental corporate hiring for several more months.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon’s devices division has suffered an operating loss of over $5 billion in recent years. According to the report, Amazon has considered whether it should focus on Alexa’s new capabilities as some customers only use the voice assistant for a handful of tasks.
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