Amazon will cut 10,000 jobs this week

Amazon plans to carry out wide-reaching firings of about 10,000 workers this week, as reported by the New York Times, citing unnamed sources.

According to the media company, the cuts are likely to focus on Amazon Alexa, as well as the retail and human resources divisions. The Alexa business, which designs the Echo hardware and software for it, is operating at a $5 billion-per-year loss. 

The company will cut 10,000 jobs, which represents 1% of Amazon's total global workforce of 1.5 million. As reported by the Times, the number of employees that will be redundant may change. Earlier, on November 3, Amazon announced it paused on corporate hiring.

Amazon has been struggling with financial difficulties in recent quarters, as retail division sales have declined compared to the sales seen during the peak of the pandemic. At that time, the company betted on its own delivery network, investing heavily in warehouses and recruiting.

The world's largest e-commerce company is seeking to get rid of these assets and scale back warehousing centers. In recent months, the company has phased out several initiatives, such as Amazon Care, a primary care and emergency medical service.