by cocochanel on 11/14/22, 4:00 PM with 287 comments
by insane_dreamer on 11/14/22, 5:31 PM
> The pandemic produced Amazon’s most profitable era on record ... Amazon doubled its work force in two years, and funneled its winnings into expansion and experimentation to find the next big things.
So it doubled its head count in the past 3 years and is now trimming by 3% (or 1% of global).
Update: Tried to figure out whether the doubling head count was corporate employees or total. I don't have time to dig into it now but a quick search did turn up Amazon's EEO reports in which they break employees down into a number of categories including "Professionals" -- which sounds like it would include engineers. 77K in 2019, 121K in 2021. So it's reasonable to assume those did double from 2019 to the present. See https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/workplace/our-workforce-dat...
by green-eclipse on 11/14/22, 4:29 PM
Also: "Amazon froze hiring in several smaller teams in September. In October, it stopped filling more than 10,000 open roles in its core retail business. Two weeks ago, it froze corporate hiring across the company, including its cloud computing division, for the next few months."
by green-eclipse on 11/14/22, 4:32 PM
$5B loss from one business line is a lot. Maybe this manner of investment inspired Zuck on the metaverse.
by zackmorris on 11/14/22, 5:15 PM
Isn't that enough money to keep employees through a downturn?
The flip side is that individuals have almost no borrowing power. The bottom 40% of the US population has a negative net worth, so can't borrow anything:
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/02/the-costs-of-...
To me, this looks like evidence that profit comes from offloading externalities onto the public.
Ordinarily, workers could find work at other companies. But because companies are so large now, they have effective monopolies in markets like shipping. So layoffs could be used as a signal to bring companies up on antitrust charges.
by lbriner on 11/14/22, 5:20 PM
Companies that have so much cash they can employ 100K+ developers on top of goodness knows how many designers, PMs, POs etc. of course they hire and fire. They can afford to offer above-average conditions when the markets need it and everyone goes flocking there only to be surprised when their job is taken away at the next point the shareholders are bothered about ROI.
If you want to ride the unicorns and take the risk, that's fine, but there are plenty of people around the world who have far fewer choices with their work and are paid far less so I don't feel too bad that someone's Christmas might be not as expected.
If you want job security, get a job somewhere that isn't trying to earn their next billion, where you can make a difference, where you are appreciated and where work/life balance means something. I expect you would feel much better :-)
by dmix on 11/14/22, 5:04 PM
Edit: looks like they grew headcount by 60% (+500,000 people) in 2020 and 23% (+310,000) in 2021.
Today's announcement reduces headcount by 1% which is tiny compared to their growth.
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AMZN/amazon/number...
by bena on 11/14/22, 4:36 PM
Disclaimer:
I have a job and haven't been actively looking, but recruiters will reach out and I'll usually go through the interview process if only to practice.
And here we go:
I got the initial email around the middle of September for one particular division. As I went through the initial assessment, that division "met their hiring goals" and I was transferred to another division.
Through September and October, I organized the virtual on-site. And my interview was scheduled for last week. The weeks prior, as we know, the shit hit all the fans. I fully expected to get a "too bad, so sad" email saying my interview was cancelled. It wasn't. I went through the interview and I'm waiting to hear back currently.
But yeah, I would not be surprised to get a rejection. But from the point of view of my experience, nothing they've done or said has made anything seem off.
by green-eclipse on 11/14/22, 4:25 PM
by rabuse on 11/14/22, 4:48 PM
by FabianBeiner on 11/14/22, 5:22 PM
by fred_is_fred on 11/14/22, 5:06 PM
by samanator on 11/14/22, 10:16 PM
by andrew_ on 11/14/22, 4:37 PM
by __derek__ on 11/14/22, 4:45 PM
This is the game, right? For the first time since Alexa launched, Amazon is looking at a painful Q4, so the rest of retail can't cover up the Devices org's big wart.
by allisdust on 11/14/22, 5:08 PM
So why are these companies still shedding jobs? I'm starting to wonder if the tech industry is disproportionately impacted similar to dot com bubble from 2000.
by greatpostman on 11/14/22, 4:26 PM
by noobermin on 11/14/22, 4:25 PM
by yrgulation on 11/14/22, 5:22 PM
by nightski on 11/14/22, 5:22 PM
by googlryas on 11/14/22, 6:25 PM
by jstx1 on 11/14/22, 4:07 PM
by peplee on 11/14/22, 6:31 PM
by elforce002 on 11/14/22, 9:44 PM
by 1letterunixname on 11/14/22, 5:35 PM
by clarge1120 on 11/14/22, 5:17 PM
by blobbers on 11/14/22, 5:17 PM
Even if they have 1% churn each month, that's about 16,000 turnover a month. Laying off 10,000 is not news until we find out where the cuts are happening.
by jbaczuk on 11/14/22, 5:15 PM
by prometheus76 on 11/14/22, 5:23 PM
by madduci on 11/14/22, 6:32 PM
by tamaharbor on 11/14/22, 4:05 PM
by rapjr9 on 11/15/22, 1:33 AM
by imwillofficial on 11/14/22, 6:33 PM
by tibbydudeza on 11/14/22, 4:34 PM
by lukaesch on 11/14/22, 4:19 PM
The latest wave of followers came due to the latest Twitter and Meta layoffs.