Amazon is freezing corporate hiring in its retail business for the rest of the year, according to a report by the New York Times.
The Seattle-based retail giant confirmed the accuracy of the report to FN.
According to the report, Amazon is halting hiring for all corporate roles, including technology positions, in its Amazon stores business — which covers the company’s retail and operations, and accounts for the bulk of Amazon’s sales. About 20,000 openings were posted in that division as of Monday evening.
The freeze, which was announced in an internal email to recruiters, also noted that the company’s cloud computing division, will not be affected by the freeze. Some roles, such as student hiring and field positions, were exempt from the pause, the email said.
“Amazon continues to have a significant number of open roles available across the company,” Brad Glasser, an Amazon spokesman, said in a statement sent to FN. “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.”
Amazon is the latest company to pause its hiring plans or implement staff cuts amid concerns over the economy. Several companies including Google, Apple and Meta have announced they will slow or temporarily pause hiring altogether.
Other companies, like Rent the Runway, VF Corp., Allbirds, PVH Corp., Shopify and StockX have turned to turned to layoffs in order to recoup losses in recent quarters as rising inflation has shifted consumer buying habits.
As for Amazon, the company announced plans last week to launch its first holiday shopping event this month. Called the “Prime Early Access Sale,” the new 48-hour event gives Prime members in 15 countries exclusive early access to holiday deals from Oct.11-12.
This new holiday follows the success of Amazon’s Prime Day shopping event. According to Adobe, Americans spent $11.9 billion across the two-day event, representing 8.5% growth compared with last year. The first day saw U.S. consumers spend $6 billion, while the second day came in at $5.9 billion.
In July, Amazon reported sales for the second quarter grew 7% to $121.23 billion, which was higher than Wall Street’s expected $119.09 billion. It represented Amazon’s third straight quarter of single-digit annual revenue growth.
