Amazon has revealed that it has reduced its headcount by 100,000, mainly through attrition.
Companies across multiple industries are slowing or freezing hiring and laying off employees in an effort to reduce costs and weather an impending recession. In its latest quarterly earnings, Amazon revealed it let attrition reduce its headcount by 100,000 following a major expansion during the height of the pandemic.
“As the variant subsided in the second half of the quarter and employees returned from leave, we quickly transitioned from being understaffed to being overstaffed, resulting in lower productivity,” Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said, via The Boston Globe.
This isn’t the first measure the company has taken to reduce costs. Amazon’s Global Corporate Affairs group announced it would flatten hiring and the company is reportedly looking to offload 10 to 20 million square feet of real estate.
