Amazon doesn’t regret years of explosive growth and over-hiring, even as it launches its largest-ever job-cutting campaign.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced in November that the company would begin furloughing employees across multiple divisions, suggesting layoffs would likely continue through 2023. Jassy commented, new york times The company reported that it plans to lay off about 10,000 employees across its devices, retail and human resources departments.
Jussy justified Wednesday’s mass layoffs new york times At the DealBook Summit, the company began cutting expenses, citing economic uncertainty ahead. “We just felt the need to rationalize costs,” he said.
But at the same time, Jassy defended the wave of jobs and explosive growth Amazon has enjoyed over the past few years, despite the sharp turnaround this year.
Amazon’s retail business grew tremendously early in the pandemic, and at one point the company was adding as many as 1,400 new hires per day. “At the time, we had to make the decision to spend more money than we could have imagined and build our infrastructure faster,” Jassy said Wednesday.
“We knew we might be overbuilding,” he added.
Amazon’s cost-cutting measures this year were prompted by a bleak economic environment for companies in the technology sector, many of which have resorted to layoffs to keep costs down. Twitter, Meta and Microsoft have announced cuts again this year, with many pointing to similar causes. The lockdown phase of the pandemic is fading and demand for technology products is dwindling.
Amazon did not immediately reply luckrequest for comment.
One of Amazon’s divisions that has been laying off staff is its devices division, which has weighed on the company in recent years. The sector, which in the past had more than 10,000 employees working on devices like Alexa and Echo, could be losing the company as much as $5 billion a year in recent years. wall street journal reported last month.
With device sales sluggish, Amazon relies not only on revenue but also on other divisions, including its advertising business, which generated $31.2 billion in revenue last year. But despite entering the traditionally busy holiday season, Amazon warned of lower future sales at its final shareholder meeting in October after reporting dismal earnings that fell short of Wall Street expectations. .
The company’s management said it expects fourth-quarter revenue of $140 billion to $148 billion this year. .
Amazon’s report of poor earnings has prompted Bank of America analysts to argue that ‘the recession may have already begun’ as consumer spending shows signs of slowing. .
But that outlook may have been boosted by a record strong start for retailers to the holiday season observed this week. According to Adobe Analytics, consumers spent a record $11.3 billion on Cyber Monday and the company said on Wednesday that his Thanksgiving holiday shopping weekend was a “record-breaking” and “largest ever.” announced that it was
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