Amazon announces record-breaking employee reduction plan

(ECNS) -- U.S. E-commerce giant Amazon plans to lay off 10,000 employees, a record-breaking staff reduction in the company's history.

This would represent less than one percent of the group's total payroll, which had 1.54 million employees worldwide at the end of September, not counting seasonal workers recruited during periods of increased activity like Christmas holidays.

A report by The Times said the redundancy plan will target Amazon’s devices department, the retail division, and human resources. People in the know said the layoffs will be conducted as early as this week.

Amazon doubled its workforce from the first quarter of 2020 to 1.62 million employees by 2022, as business boomed due to COVID-19, which has attracted a large number of online shoppers.

But with the economy souring, the company announced a hiring freeze two weeks ago and its workforce has already shrank compared to the beginning of the year.

Amazon also downsized its workforce to cope with the internet bubble in the early 21st century.

Several large companies have recently announced staff reduction plans, including Meta, Twitter, Disney, and Citibank.