Amazon halts retail exec hiring
CEO looking to cut costs amid weakest growth in 2 decades
Amazon is freezing corporate hiring in its retail business for the rest of the year, according to an internal announcement obtained by The New York Times, making it the latest tech company to pull back amid economic uncertainty.
The email to recruiters announced that the company was halting hiring for all corporate roles, including technology positions, globally in its Amazon stores business, which covers the company’s retail and operations, and accounts for the bulk of Amazon.com Inc.’s sales. About 20,000 openings were posted in that division as of late Monday.
The company’s cloud computing division, which is much more profitable than its retail business, will not be affected by the freeze. Some roles, such as student hiring and field positions, were exempt from the pause, the email said.
The email advised recruiters to tell job candidates that Amazon was not in a hiring freeze, although the correspondence went on to note that all open job requisitions should be closed in the coming days, with new openings becoming available early next year.
“Amazon continues to have a significant number of open roles available across the company,” Brad Glasser, an Amazon spokesperson, said in a statement. “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.”
Candidates with interviews scheduled before Oct. 15 could still receive offers, but they would not start at Amazon until next year. The email recommended to cancel phone calls to screen candidates and other early recruiting activities.
Layoffs and hiring slowdowns have hit much of the tech industry in recent months. Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook, told employees last week that it was freezing hiring for most positions as it looked to shrink its workforce.
Other retailers have signaled a painful period ahead, with rising costs and inventory as consumers cut back on discretionary spending amid high inflation.
Under Andy Jassy, who took over as Amazon’s CEO a little more than a year ago, the company has been pulling back on spending as it looks to trim costs amid its weakest growth in two decades.
Jassy recently told investors the company has focused on controlling costs and efficiency in its warehouse and logistics operations. Amazon has slowed its once-rapid warehouse expansion, closed facilities, backed out of leases and mothballed some new buildings.
The company employed 1.52 million people in the second quarter, which was almost 100,000 fewer than at the end of March, primarily from reductions in its hourly workforce.
Its corporate hiring freeze is the latest sign that cost-controlling measures are hitting Amazon’s core retail and technology teams, as well. In recent years, Amazon has hosted an annual “Career Day” in September, during which it recruits for tens of thousands of salaried positions. Last year, it received more than 1 million job applications. But it did not host the event this year.
Last month, on the company’s annual devices day, when it debuts consumer products, the offerings were notably more restrained than in the past. The event focused largely on updates to existing product lines, such as the Fire TV and Kindle.
In the past, the event included a number of oddball products with limited obvious consumer potential, like a printer for Post-it Notes, an Alexa-enabled ring and an indoor home security camera drone.