Amazon plans to lay off 10,000 people starting this week

Amazon.com Inc plans to lay off about 10,000 people in corporate and tech jobs starting this week, the New York Times reported Monday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The job cuts will target the e-commerce giant’s devices unit, which is home to voice assistant Alexa, as well as its retail and human resources division, according to the report, which also said the total number of layoffs it is still variable.

The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

As of December 31 last year, Amazon had more than 1.6 million full-time and part-time employees and recently said it would freeze corporate hiring for the next few months.

The news comes just weeks after Amazon warned of a slowdown in growth during the busy holiday season when it generates the highest sales, saying consumers and businesses had less money to spend due to rising prices.

Amazon is the latest US company to make deep cuts to its employee base to prepare for a possible economic downturn.

Last week, Facebook parent Meta Platforms said it would cut more than 11,000 jobs, or 13 percent of its workforce, to rein in costs. Others include Elon Musk-owned Twitter Inc, Microsoft Corp and Snap Inc.

Amazon shares, which have lost about 40 percent of their value so far this year amid a technology sell-off, briefly pared losses and last traded down 2.4 percent at $98. .38.

By Tiyashi Datta and Nivedita Balu; Publisher: Arun Koyur

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Source: news.google.com