Amazon makes fresh job cuts, mainly in retail biz

Amazon announced on Wednesday that it had reduced its workforce by a small number of employees, primarily within its retail division which manages the primary e-commerce platform. The layoffs coincide with one of Amazon's largest shopping events, known as Prime Big Deal Days. The promotion began on Tuesday and continued through Wednesday, providing various discounts to customers.

These cuts mark the latest in a series of minor reductions following a larger round of 30,000 job cuts that started last year and continued into January. Some affected employees have shared posts from internal Slack channels about the news with Reuters.

Amazon has dismissed fewer than 1,000 white-collar workers, according to a person familiar with the matter. A company spokesperson stated that they have adjusted parts of their Stores business, believing this structure will better support their goals. The internal Slack channel mentioned that several divisions within Stores, such as customer service and selling partner services, were impacted, along with other units across Amazon.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and executive chairman, commented in a Fox News interview aired on Wednesday that continued job cuts were necessary because the company had overhired during the pandemic. People were staying home and ordering, which was stressful for the company. People worked extremely hard, but the company grew its headcount.