US-based e-commerce giant Amazon’s layoffs could impact in job losses of over hundreds of employees in India. The company on Monday said that it planning to lay off 10,000 employees. The tech giant operates several businesses in India, including e-commerce, web services, and video streaming. Though the exact number of job cuts in India are not known, in India it may be higher than the layoffs by other giants like Meta, according to a report by The Economic Times (ET).
The headcount at Amazon India is estimated to be 11,0000. These layoffs are part of the global strategy to deal with slowing sales in the wake of a possible economic downturn.
According to the ET report, "The retrenchment is happening here (India) and discussions are underway on the numbers," a person aware of the matter said, while adding, "There is a sense it might be relatively higher as compared to peers like Meta-owned Facebook and others where India was not affected in a big way.”
Earlier this week, reports had said that Amazon Inc is planning to lay off around 10,000 employees in corporate and technology roles beginning this week, a person familiar with the matter said, in what would amount to its biggest such reduction to date.
The cuts, earlier reported by the New York Times, would represent about 3 per cent of Amazon's corporate staff. The exact number may vary as businesses within Amazon review their priorities, the source told Reuters.
In India, Amazon has its main offices in Bengaluru. According to the report, the employees work from co-working spaces in other major cities, including direct and indirect jobs. Amazon employs over 11 lakh people in India.
The layoffs may happen across several sectors, including engineering. The company is expected to start downsizing its workforce as soon as this week, the New York Times (NYT) reported earlier.
The US multinational technology firm had over 16 lakh full-time and part-time employees as of December 31, 2021.