Amazon layoffs much worse than expected, will hit 18,000

Amazon layoffs to reach 18,000 employees total

Once layoffs are complete in the coming weeks, Amazon will have laid off more than 5% of its workforce to make investors feel better about earnings.

Tech companies are consolidating their workforce after a tough year in 2022. Apple announced it would slow its hiring, while Amazon has begun laying off large numbers of employees.

An earlier report said that layoffs would reach around 10,000 employees by the time Amazon was done. However, a new report by the Wall Street Journal, citing Amazon itself, says that total is set to exceed 18,000 in the coming weeks.

Amazon was among many companies to grow its workforce as a result of Covid-19. Demand for online shopping rose throughout 2020 and 2021, so Amazon doubled its logistics network and hired hundreds of thousands of employees.

As the world opened back up and in-person work and shopping resumed, Amazon felt the pressure. It started by cutting back on spending, freezing hiring, and ultimately deciding on layoffs. Amazon's 18,000 laid-off employees will represent the highest number of people let go by a tech company in recent months.

Employees targeted by the layoffs included those in the devices business, recruiting, and retail operations. It will result in a 5% overall reduction in corporate staff at Amazon.

So far, Wall Street is not impressed. The consensus is that the cuts do not go far enough, and Amazon needs to further trim costs.

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11 Comments

hmlongco

said about 1 year ago

My problem with it is that it's largely a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Instead on cutting other costs or--heaven forbid--taking a minor short-term hit on profitability, at the first hint of trouble hundreds of companies rush to fire thousands to tens-of-thousands of employees who now, of course, aren't making an income, which means that they in turn cut their spending, which ends up cutting into company revenues...

And so the downward spiral perpetuates...

DAalseth

said about 1 year ago

Employees targeted by the layoffs included those in the devices business, …An admission that Alexa has been a flop. They sold a lot of them, but their idea that people would be sitting in the living room saying “Alexa, order me a box of detergent”, “Alexa, order me a new winter jacket” never happened. Of course a ham sandwich could have told you that way before it came to pass.

hmlongco said:

My problem with it is that it's largely a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Instead on cutting other costs or--heaven forbid--taking a minor short-term hit on profitability, at the first hint of trouble hundreds of companies rush to fire thousands to tens-of-thousands of employees who now, of course, aren't making an income, which means that they in turn cut their spending, which ends up cutting into company revenues...
And so the downward spiral perpetuates...

There’s a vary famous story of Henry Ford who decided to dramatically raise the wages he was paying the people in his factories. The result was that they took the extra income and bought Ford cars. Profits soared. Well as you pointed out it works both ways. I’m old enough to remember the job cuts in the ‘70s, which degraded the economy, which led to lower profits, which let to more job cuts, and we ended up in a real mess by ‘77-‘80. The cycle works just like you said.

But heaven forbid Bezos cut his d*** shaped rocket, or other vanity projects.

Madbum

said about 1 year ago

Yet Government keeps reporting high job numbers, which lets ferderal reserve keep hiking rates, destroying peoples lives , by keeping housing and rents unattainable .

something is rigged

chadbag

said about 1 year ago

They should put the people to work on profitable things. Grow your profits by doing interesting profitable things with them. The problem isn’t too many people. The problem is not using them in a profitable way.

As is mentioned, you don’t grow by shrinking. You grow by coming up with new and interesting products.

davidw

said about 1 year ago

DAalseth said:

Employees targeted by the layoffs included those in the devices business, …
An admission that Alexa has been a flop. They sold a lot of them, but their idea that people would be sitting in the living room saying “Alexa, order me a box of detergent”, “Alexa, order me a new winter jacket” never happened. Of course a ham sandwich could have told you that way before it came to pass.

hmlongco said:

My problem with it is that it's largely a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Instead on cutting other costs or--heaven forbid--taking a minor short-term hit on profitability, at the first hint of trouble hundreds of companies rush to fire thousands to tens-of-thousands of employees who now, of course, aren't making an income, which means that they in turn cut their spending, which ends up cutting into company revenues...
And so the downward spiral perpetuates...

There’s a vary famous story of Henry Ford who decided to dramatically raise the wages he was paying the people in his factories. The result was that they took the extra income and bought Ford cars. Profits soared. Well as you pointed out it works both ways. I’m old enough to remember the job cuts in the ‘70s, which degraded the economy, which led to lower profits, which let to more job cuts, and we ended up in a real mess by ‘77-‘80. The cycle works just like you said.

But heaven forbid Bezos cut his d*** shaped rocket, or other vanity projects.

Ford paying his workers well and in turn they bought a Ford auto, had nothing to do with Ford profits soaring. All of Ford well paid employees could had bought a new Ford auto every year and it would not amount to a rounding error in the amount of cars Ford was selling every year. What immensely increased profits was the increase in productively. Ford paying his workers well, reduced workers turnover. This in turn reduced the amount of time Ford had to spend hiring new workers and training them. Workers were more than happy stay with Ford. And the longer they stayed, the better they got at their job. The less days they are off sick. Which leads to more efficiency on the auto assembly line. The best auto mechanics went looking for a job at Ford because Ford was paying the most.

If a company profits soared because all their well paid employees bought their products, they would be out of business in a short time. One can find a way to make a perpetual motion machine, before a company that pays its employees twice that of their competition (Which was what Ford was paying)., have their profits soared because their employees are buying the products they are well paid to produce. Imagine how much more their profits will soar, if they just hired twice as many employees and pay them well?

Remember, in the end, Ford was more profitable because he invented a way, with the assembly line, to produce an automobile faster, more efficiently and with less employees.