Amazon reportedly is planning to lay off about 10,000 employees beginning this week, which would mark the largest layoffs in the history of the company.

According to a report by the New York Times, reliable sources close to the matter said that these job cuts would primarily impact the company’s devices organization, retail division, and human resources.

The 10,000 jobs lost would be about 1% of Amazon’s global workforce, which totals around 1.5 million people.

The tech firm has also shut down some of its services, such as Amazon Care, its primary healthcare service. Neil Lindsay, the vice president of Amazon Health Services, reported that the initiative would not be a sustainable, long-term service.

Reports of Amazon’s plans to have massive layoffs come as other tech firms make similar cuts to their staff as well. Just last week, Meta announced that it will be laying off over 13% of its staff, equating to over 11,000 employees losing their jobs.

Similarly, after Elon Musk took over Twitter, he laid off half of its workforce.

As fears of an economic downturn increase, big tech companies such as Google, Apple, and Meta are also freezing or slowing their hiring processes.

In early October, Amazon announced it was putting a hold on new hires for corporate roles in its retail business “for the next few months” due to economic uncertainty. All open job postings were closed, and recruiting activities were canceled.

After the pandemic, Amazon went on a hiring spree, significantly increasing its workforce as consumer preferences trended toward e-commerce. However, shares in Amazon have fallen over 40% in 2022, and Amazon’s holiday quarter revenue forecast is lighter than expected, based on the company’s most recent earnings report, which showed a net loss of $2 billion.

Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser commented on the hiring pause, saying, “We have many different businesses at various stages of evolution, and we expect to keep adjusting our hiring strategies in each of these businesses at various junctures.”

Last month, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos tweeted a video of Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon predicting a recession. Bezos agreed with this prediction, saying, “the probabilities in this economy tell you to batten down the hatches.”

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