Amazon Lays off Hundreds of Employees
Amazon Inc. is cutting several hundreds of employees of their jobs at its Seattle headquarters, along with hundreds of other employees around the world.
Although the company is now the second-largest U.S. based corporate employer, Amazon has been known for having enough resources to accept several employees. Thus, the massive layoffs came as a surprise to many.
According to The Seattle Times, the multinational electronic commerce company has its dismissal of employees focused on the company's consumer retail businesses. Several employees told the Seattle-based newspaper that the hiring binge Amazon took over the last two years can be blamed for this.
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"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," an Amazon spokesman said in a statement sent to CNN. "For affected employees, we work to find roles in the areas where we are hiring."
However, there are still more than 4,000 open corporate job listings under the company's headquarters in Seattle, and more than 12,000 open positions globally. This goes to show that the company is not meaning to reduce the number of its employees, which is contrary to what is being said about Amazon's overpopulation.
On the other hand, Amazon's intelligent personal assistant Alexa is also seen as a factor in the layoffs happening in the company. Sources said that this is because the company is focusing on Alexa as it is a fast-growing and promising business unit.
"Our 2017 projections for Alexa were very optimistic, and we far exceeded them," said CEO Jeff Bezos in the company's press release obtained by Recode.
Amazon employs more than 500,000 people internationally, according to Fortune Magazine. It has also been reported by the magazine that Amazon is in the process of searching for a possible location for a second headquarters, where it will be hiring up to 50,000 workers. The company's global workforce was at 566,000 in December.
