Amazon is reportedly preparing to shed thousands of office jobs amid slowing sales and concerns about an economic downturn.
The cuts could affect about 3% of the e-commerce giant’s office staff — or about 10,000 people — US media reported, citing anonymous sources.
The cuts are expected to affect areas such as personal devices and e-commerce.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.
The company had already imposed a hiring freeze and halted some of its warehouse expansions, warning it had hired too many workers during the pandemic. It has also taken steps to shut down some parts of its business and cancel projects such as a personal delivery robot.
Last week, the company said cutting spending would be a focus of its annual review of operations.
“As part of this year’s review, we are of course considering the current macro environment and looking at ways to optimize costs,” the company said in a statement at the time.
According to media reports, the exact number of jobs to be cut is still unclear.
Amazon is grappling with a slowdown in online sales after booming business during the pandemic.
Though overall revenue rose 15% in the most recent quarter, the company has remained cautious on the outlook as the slowdown spreads to other areas, including its cloud-computing unit Amazon Web Services, which has long been driving its earnings.
Founder Jeff Bezos, who has stepped down as chief executive but remains chairman of the board, said on social media it was time to “close the hatches.”
Amazon joins a slew of other tech companies that have announced job cuts and warned of a downturn in the economy. The list includes Meta, parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, which also recently announced it would cut 11,000 jobs — the largest reduction in its history, or about 13% of its workforce.
Overall, U.S.-based tech companies have shed more than 28,000 jobs so far this year, more than double last year, according to a report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which tracks such announcements.
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