Tuesday in CE: Amazon Cuts Several Hundred Jobs in Rare Round of Layoffs

By Patrick McCarthy

In a rare move, Amazon has laid off a few hundred corporate employees at their Seattle HQ, along with more spread across their global operations. The layoffs are primarily focused on Amazon’s consumer retail businesses, according to two people familiar with the matter says The Seattle Times.

Surprisingly, Amazon reports that they are overstaffed, despite being the second largest US-based corporate employer. On the other hand, it doesn't sound like this is a money issue. The 40,000 and change employees at Amazon's HQ probably suffered a lot of redundancies.

“As part of our annual planning process, we are making headcount adjustments across the company — small reductions in a couple of places and aggressive hiring in many others,” a spokesman told The Seattle Times. Amazon said there would be opportunities for redeployment within the company.

The job cuts also come from Amazon’s subsidiaries including publishing arm Createspace and footwear seller Zappos. Amazon hired 130,000 people in 2017, excluding acquisitions, according to its latest quarterly earnings report. As of December 2017, it had 566,000 employees, an increase of 66 percent from the previous year reports The Verge.

Amazon is currently scouting a location for its second headquarters, where it plans to add up to 50,000 jobs. In a statement to The Verge, the company said it would try to find new roles for employees whose jobs are being cut. The company has 12,000 open corporate positions.

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