Amazon to chop round 10,000 company and tech jobs, making largest layoffs in its historical past

Amazon will become the latest technology company to make massive job cuts, laying off approximately 10,000 people in its corporate and technology workforce, according to a New York Times report this morning.

The cuts will focus on the division that makes the company’s Echo devices and Alexa voice assistant, Amazon’s retail operations, and human resources, the newspaper reported, citing unnamed people with knowledge of the plan.

People familiar with the matter told GeekWire that the number is fluid, because the decisions are being made in individual divisions. While the cuts may end up in the range of 10,000 people, there is no companywide target, the people said. Although the first of the layoffs may become public as early as this week, they will be ongoing.

Amazon has not yet commented publicly on the report.

If the job cuts go forward as expected, they would be the largest in the history of the Seattle tech giant. Amazon employs 75,000 people in the Seattle region, many of them corporate and tech workers, as part of its workforce of 1.54 million people around the world, including warehouse workers who would not be impacted.

Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky told analysts on Amazon’s recent earnings call that the company was preparing for “what could be a slower growth period” due to increased foreign currency headwinds, global inflation, fuel prices, and rising energy costs.

The cuts follow a period of rapid growth during the pandemic. The company told employees two weeks ago that it would freeze corporate hiring.

Others that have recently announced plans to lay off workers include Lyft, Twitter, Redfin, Meta, Opendoor, Stripe, and many other technology companies with a presence in the Pacific Northwest.

Developing story, more to come.