Posted on 02/12/2018 9:36:13 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Amazon is laying off hundreds of corporate employees, a rare cutback for a company that has spent most of the last few years in a frantic growth spurt.
The layoffs, underway now, will fall on several hundred employees at the online retailer’s Seattle headquarters, along with hundreds more elsewhere in Amazon’s global operations, one person familiar with the cuts said. The layoffs are primarily focused on Amazon’s consumer retail businesses, according to two people familiar with the matter.
A few hundred layoffs are modest for a company that is now the second-largest U.S.-based corporate employer, and pales in comparison to adjustments in recent years that saw Microsoft and Boeing eliminate thousands of jobs in a single cutting drive.
But at Amazon, a company with a wide range of growing businesses that prides itself on frugality and efficient allocation of resources, broad layoffs of any kind are rare.
The cuts come after a hiring binge that took the company’s Seattle head count to more than 40,000 people, from just 5,000 in 2010.
According to several employees, the rapid growth of the last two years left some units over budget and some teams with too much staff for their work. Amazon had implemented hiring freezes in recent months across several groups, a move that reduced the company’s open job listings in Seattle to their lowest level in years.
In a statement, Amazon acknowledged the cuts.
“As part of our annual planning process, we are making head count adjustments across the company — small reductions in a couple of places and aggressive hiring in many others,” a spokesman said. “For affected employees, we work to find roles in the areas where we are hiring.”
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
Gotta feed the beast!.................Bezos Bank Account!................
If you hire 35,000 people in 7 years, you will hire many who seemed good but have turned out to be unsatisfactory. It is not surprising if some cleaning-up is in order.
While I find Jack Welch’s idea that every company should get rid of the bottom 10% every year risible, if you have not gotten rid of anyone for a decade there is probably a lot of low-hanging fruit.
on a related note:
Why would Amazon start up a new delivery service, rather than buy an existing one, like UPS or Fed Ex?
It would be easier to expand or tailor one of these than to start from scratch.
Jack Welch’s principle of continuous trimming of the management bureaucracy.
UPS has a union to contend with. FedEx is document heavy and Amazon may want to concentrate on packages.
My guess would be Christmas rush is over.
also if you build the business your self, you can hire mostly younger workers.
Things that happen when you don’t hire a CPA to keep an eye on the numbers tada.
Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods was a HUGE MISTAKE!!! The food industry is a different kind of beast Amazon has NO EXPERIENCE in!!! Amazon however should be able to absorb the losses and will also be a HUGE write off for them!!!! In the short run though people will lose their jobs!!!
My take as well. Wonder if this is the Trump affect, or just part of the cycle.
Much money does Bezos need to support the failing Washington ComPost, especially after the stock tumbles of last week. :-)
As I understand it, Amazon took just-in-time delivery to the extreme with Whole Foods; lots of empty shelves. Sad.
Perhaps stock holders are starting to wonder if Amazon is ever going to post a real profit.
“While I find Jack Welch’s idea that every company should get rid of the bottom 10% every year risible, if you have not gotten rid of anyone for a decade there is probably a lot of low-hanging fruit.”
Apply this logic to the federal bureaucracy. I suspect a cut of 20% to the payroll of every agency and at least 50% to the overpaid “consultants” advising every agency would have no adverse impact on the ability of the federal government to function.
Fedex is slowly shifting to ground package handling, sorting, and delivery over air overnight. The two segments will remain, but make no mistake, FedEx is pumping much of it’s investment in growth into ground service.
So they have cities all over the country working themselves into a lather about HQ2 WHY, exactly??
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