Amazon freezes corporate hiring in retail business
Amazon is altering its spending in response to rising inflation globally, following Google and Meta. Bloomberg reported that for the rest of 2022, the company will not be hiring for corporate roles in its retail operation.
The freeze applies to corporate roles in the Worldwide Amazon Stores division due to slow sales, though the warehouse network where most of its employees work is not affected. Amazon’s biggest revenue generator, AWS (Amazon Web Service), won’t be affected, and hirings across sections will continue, the report adds.
In a statement to Bloomberg, the company said, “Amazon continues to have a significant number of open roles available across the company”. Amazon spokesman Brad Glasser also added, “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”.
The revelations come about a month after Bloomberg reported that the corporation intended to scale up its enormous delivery business due to sluggish sales growth. As a measure, Amazon abandoned dozens of existing and planned facilities around the US and Europe. Its latest moves contrast old plans, where the company was aggressively expanding operations during the peak COVId-19 pandemic. In September, the company said that it is common for companies to “explore multiple locations at once and make adjustments based upon needs across the network”.
Currently, Amazon, along with tech giants like Google, are taking stock of global economic situations, which are disrupted by multiple factors such as the Russia-Ukraine war. For instance, Google recently reduced travel and entertainment budgets for employees. The company CEO Sundar Pichai even told employees that they “shouldn’t always equate fun with money”. It also froze hiring across sections.