New Delhi: Amazon has reduced its direct workforce by nearly 1 lakh, the largest sequential decline in its history, primarily at its fulfillment centers and distribution network. The e‑commerce giant still employs over 15,000 people, most of them in the tech world. According to Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky, Amazon plans to be more cautious about hiring at its headquarters and other facilities going forward.
“I think it’s right that people are stepping down and questioning their hiring plans. So do we. I don’t think you’ll see that we’re hiring at the same pace as last year, or the last few years,” he told reporters after the company announced its quarterly results. (ALSO READ: ITR filing for the Fiscal year 2021–22: Is the July 31 ITR filing a public holiday? Do you know what that means)
Speaking to analysts, Olsavsky said the company hired 14,000 new employees in the first quarter. (ALSO READ: Sri Lankan Economic Crisis: Country’s Inflation Surges Over 60% in July 2022)
“Last year we had reduced our net headcount by 27,000, so we’re pretty transparent about the fact that we hired a lot of people to cover the omicron variant in the first quarter,” he said.
Fortunately, this variant died down and the company had a higher number of employees.
“We – that’s down through adjusting our hiring levels and normal turnover and is pretty much – was pretty much resolved by late April or early May. So that’s dominating the quarter-over-quarter reduction in headcount,” he added.
Amazon said it is currently seeing a stabilization in the workforce.
“It was a very difficult birthing phase in the second half of last year and it didn’t come out of nowhere anytime soon. So we’re very diligent and make sure we have a good workplace and environment to attract employees,” Olsavsky said.
