Amazon has announced another round of job cuts, with fewer than 1,000 white collar employees affected across its global operations, according to media reports. Employees in India, the US and the UK are among those affected, with most of the reductions coming from Amazon’s Stores division.
The Stores unit oversees Amazon’s main ecommerce business. The affected teams include customer service and selling partner services, while internal communications suggest that other teams across the company may also have been impacted.
The latest Amazon layoffs come as the company’s major shopping events are underway. In India, the Amazon Great Indian Festival began on October 7 for Prime members before opening to all customers, while Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days ran globally from October 6 to October 7.
Amazon did not disclose the exact number of employees affected in India. The company said it had adjusted parts of its Stores business to create a structure that would better support its priorities, Reuters reported.
The latest Amazon job cuts follow a larger workforce reduction of around 30,000 roles that began last year and continued into January. Reuters reported that the latest reductions are part of a series of smaller cuts following that restructuring.
Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos said in a Fox News interview that the workforce reductions were linked to hiring during the pandemic, when the company expanded its headcount significantly as online shopping demand surged.
