In a deteriorating global economic context, Amazon is preparing to lay off about 10,000 people. This impressive figure shows that no player is spared by the current crisis
Amazon is about to lay off
According to the New York Times, Amazon is about to lay off 10,000 employees. These cuts are focused on the division “Amazon Devices”, namely the branch of the group producing products such as Kindle readers, Alexa services or various connected devices.
All services are concerned, but this symbolic milestone of 10,000 people is likely to change upwards or downwards depending on the plans of each unit, which have yet to be finalised.
While this number is significant, it would actually represent 3% of the company’s workforce, a far cry from Twitter’s 50%. By comparison, Meta also laid off over 11,000 employees last week, or 13% of its workforce.
The downside of a mad dash initiated by the health crisis
With the health crisis, global containment has been a more than lucrative opportunity for Amazon. While this proved to be the most profitable period for the group, the company doubled its workforce in the space of two years.
But since then, global economic sentiment has deteriorated sharply, to the point where Amazon’s stock has completely erased its previous bullish rally:
Amazon share price
The asset, which ranks as the fourth-largest U.S. market capitalization, has lost nearly 48% since its previous peak exactly one year ago. In terms of valuation, this equates to a $914 billion wipeout, more than the current total capitalisation of the cryptocurrency market at 878 billion at the time of writing.
So it’s a tough first year in office for Andy Jessy, the group’s new chief executive from July 2021. Until then, he was the head of Amazon Web Service (AWS), whose tools are widely used in our ecosystem for hosting validators in Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus blockchains.
It should be noted, however, that the share’s devaluation is part of a deteriorating global economic context, where many assets are suffering declines, and that prices are not necessarily moving as rationally as fundamentals.
