According to entries made on LinkedIn by employees who claim to have been touched by job losses, technology giant Amazon has started laying off people.
This week, it was revealed that the business intends to eliminate 10,000 employees or around 3% of its office workforce.
A BBC request for comment did not immediately receive a response from Amazon.
It occurs as businesses experience slow sales and grows increasingly concerned about an economic downturn, leading to the loss of thousands of jobs across the technology sector.
The BBC has access to posts made by staff members of Lab126, the company that created the Kindle e-reader, the Luna cloud gaming platform, and Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant business.
“Due to the nature of my visa, I have a limited time to seek new work options,” said one employee, who claimed to be a software development engineer who worked in the US.
“Of course, I am saddened, however optimistic about the future because I know this signifies good change for me and others on my team,” said another Amazon employee who claimed they had been affected by the layoffs.
The business warned it had overhired during the pandemic, had previously implemented a hiring freeze, and stopped some of its warehouse expansions.
Additionally, it had stopped working on concepts like a robot that would deliver packages personally.
Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, issued a warning last month, stating that the US economy was telling people to “batten down the hatches.”
Amazon is struggling with a slump in online sales, which has caused its share price to drop by more than 40% this year.
Other significant technology businesses have previously disclosed significant layoffs as a cost-cutting measure.
Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp owner Meta stated last week that it would reduce its workforce by 13%.
Eleven thousand employees will lose employment due to the company’s first mass layoffs.
It was announced shortly after Elon Musk assumed control of Twitter that he would reduce staff by about 50%.
Salesforce, a provider of cloud-based commercial software, technology giant Microsoft, and payment processing platform Stripe have all announced layoffs in recent weeks.
“Amazon is incredibly bloated,”
An anonymous insider in the Seattle-area technology sector told the BBC that the job market had undergone a substantial shift recently.
“Since you no longer have to limit your job search to your local location, the past two years have seen a huge increase in job options. As a result, there is a fierce talent competition, and salaries have increased significantly.”
“We’re currently observing a decrease in staffing and budgets.”
He claimed that some tech companies, such as Amazon, would likely be hit particularly severely.
“Amazon is seriously overburdened. Many people are there but are the first to go because they don’t add much value.”
