Amazon India likely to layoff few hundred employees: Report
3 min read . Updated: 16 Nov 2022, 11:07 AM IST
Premium- The layoffs are part of the global plan to deal with slowing sales.
Employees in the tech companies are hit by a tough season of layoffs and hiring freeze. With Meta, Twitter, Amazon.com Inc too were planning to lay off about 10,000 people.
This cuts is also likely to impact the Indian units of Amazon. Amazon could likely to layoff a few hundred jobs from its unit, multiple people aware of the matter have told Economic Times. The exact number of cuts in India are not known, but cuts could also be higher than a few hundreds, they said.
The headcount at Amazon India is estimated to be 100,000. These layoffs are part of the global plan to deal with slowing sales.
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As per report, layoffs in India could be across engineering and other departments. Employees in shared services, back-office, and retail operations are more likely under threat, multiple people aware of the matter have said.
Earlier on 15 November, reports had said that Amazon.com Inc is planning to lay off around 10,000 employees in corporate and technology roles beginning this week, a person familiar with the matter said, in what would amount to its biggest such reduction to date.
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The cuts, earlier reported by the New York Times, would represent about 3 percent of Amazon's corporate staff. The exact number may vary as businesses within Amazon review their priorities, the source told Reuters.
As of December 31 last year, Amazon had more than 1.6 million full-time and part-time employees and had recently said it would freeze hiring to corporate workforce for the next few months.
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The online retailer plans to eliminate jobs in its devices 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 staff remained unclear.
The source attributed the reduction to the uncertain macroeconomic environment faced by Amazon and other companies.
The news follows a wave of layoffs across the technology sector, which is wary of recession after years of rapid hiring.
Earlier, when Twitter cut 50 percent of its workforce, the Indian unit of micro blogging website had sacked the whole marketing and communications department in the country, according to a report quoting sources According to the sources, Twitter has sacked employees in the marketing, communication, and some other departments in India
Just last week, Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc said it would cut more than 11,000 jobs, or 13 percent of its workforce, to rein in costs. Recently, Walt Disney Co too had planned to freeze hiring and cut some jobs, a memo seen by Reuters had reported. This move comes as the company strives to move the Disney+ streaming service to profitability amid a period of economic uncertainty, according to a memo.
Seattle-based Amazon is predicting a slowdown in sales growth for the typically lucrative holiday season. On a call with reporters last month, Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky had said that the company saw signs of tighter household budgets for shopping, and it continued to wrestle with high inflation and energy costs. It since has said it would freeze incremental corporate hiring for several months.
Amazon's devices unit in some recent years has posted an annual operating loss of more than $5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. The company has weighed whether to focus on new capabilities for Alexa when some customers use the voice assistant for just a few tasks, the report said.
(With inputs from agencies)
