American technology and e-commerce behemoth Amazon has started downsizing its non-profitable initiatives amid the growing economic downturn. The company had just announced a hiring freeze last week, as per an internal memo sent out by a top executive.
Jamie Zhang, a software engineer working at Amazon posted on LinkedIn informing his connections that he had been laid off from the company.
Moreover, a post by a former employee also said that the entire robotics team had been handed pink slips. As per data from LinkedIn, atleast 3,766 people are employed by the Robotics division of the company. Business Today has not been able to confirm how many of the 3,766 employees were let go.
Business Today has reached out to Amazon for a comment on the same. The copy will be updated when the company responds.
Furthermore, a Wall Street Journal report claims that the company has instructed staff working in some of its unprofitable units to find jobs elsewhere because their projects might shut down or be suspended soon.
Last week, the e-commerce giant had announced in an internal memo that the company would start a hiring freeze due to the macro economic environment.
Beth Galetti, the senior vice president of People Experience and Technology at the company, noted in the memo, “With the economy in an uncertain place and in light of how many people we have hired in the last few years, Andy and S-team decided this week to pause on new incremental hires in our corporate workforce.”
She further added that the hiring freeze would go on for a couple of months. “We anticipate keeping this pause in place for the next few months, and will continue to monitor what we’re seeing in the economy and the business to adjust as we think makes sense,” the memo noted.
The memo also highlighted that despite the hiring freeze, the company would go on to hire new employees for ‘targetted projects’ as well as replacements for employees who leave the company willingly. The memo read, “We will hire backfills to replace employees who move on to new opportunities, and there are some targeted places where we will continue to hire people incrementally.”
“We’re facing an unusual macro-economic environment, and want to balance our hiring and investments with being thoughtful about this economy. This is not the first time that we’ve faced uncertain and challenging economies in our past,” the note added.
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