Shares of Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) are in the red on Monday after a New York Times report said the tech behemoth plans on executing its biggest job cut ever.
How many does Amazon plans on laying off?
Starting this week, Amazon will lay off about 10,000 employees that represents roughly 1.0% of its global workforce. The job cut will primarily affect Amazon Devices, Retail, and Human Resources, the report added.
The stock market news is all the more interesting since ahead of the holiday season is when Amazon usually ramps up on hiring to meet demand. But CEO Andy Jassy seems to be taking a different approach to tackle slowing sales in the face of an economic downturn.
Last month, Amazon reported sales for its third financial quarter that came in a bit shy of Street estimates.
Consequently, the stock took a dive and is now down nearly 45% for the year.
Amazon.com Inc is yet to respond
It is also noteworthy here that the Nasdaq-listed firm more than doubled its workforce through the pandemic.
According to the NY Times report, the total number of employees Amazon will cut is not carved in stone and could change moving forward. The Seattle-headquartered company itself is yet to comment on the report.
In October, the multinational also announced a hiring freeze in parts of its fast-growing cloud business. Nonetheless, Wall Street continues to recommend buying Amazon shares and sees upside in them to $175.
Amazon.com Inc, though, is not the only one in the big tech companies to have announced a sizable layoff. Last week, peer Meta Platforms also said it was lowering its headcount by 13% as Invezz reported here.