Senior Amazon executives in Australia are facing the real risk of being given a pink slip only weeks out from Christmas with more than 10,000 employees set to be axed from the business.
Amazon employees in Australia have told ChannelNews that they “Are concerned” that local employees could be swept up in the cuts with divisions such as Alexa Voice and their hardware divisions struggling to cut losses.
Underperforming units of its business, are of real concern days out from Black Friday one of the biggest sale days of the year.
Also facing the chop next year could be Amazon warehouse employees who are calling for a unionised workforce, they could be replaced by robots.
In June, Amazon announced a prototype of a robotic system called Cardinal that lifts and sorts already-packaged orders.
Amazon, which is the largest online retailer and the second-largest private sector employer in the US needs to cut costs and the introduction of a robotic workforce is seen as one option for the business after workers moved to unionise in an effort to get more pay.
This is the same issue that transport workers in NSW face long term with the NSW State Government able to automate train movements with the elimination of train drivers on key routes.
A cut of 10,000 jobs would represent approximately 3 per cent of Amazon’s corporate workforce.
It comes as part of a review led by chief executive Andy Jassy.
Last week it was confirmed that Amazon’s unit behind voice assistant Alexa was among those being analysed for cost savings.
Kate Burleigh Country Manager, Amazon Alexa Australia/New Zealand and a local Board Director has not commented locally about the potential of cuts.
The person said job cuts were being assessed on a “team by team” basis, with the first firings potentially happening as soon as this week.
The cuts if they happen would be the largest in Amazon’s history.
Also set to slash employees is Facebook-parent Meta who has confirmed that they are cutting 11,000 roles including positions in Australia.
The planned Amazon come as the online and cloud services Company faces soaring costs and slowing growth in its online stores business. I
its market capitalisation has fallen about 42 per cent since the beginning of this year to about $1tn despite a r4ecord surge in their share value over the weekend.
Senior management at retailers such as Amazon Harvey Norman and JB Hi Fi is concerned about a pullback in consumer spending amid broader macroeconomic pressures with several retailers telling ChannelNews that they expect a strong Black Friday before the market “slows down”.
Some are tipping that Black Friday will be bigger that the Boxing Day sales.
News of the layoffs came on the same day Amazon founder and former chief executive Jeff Bezos said he planned to give away most of his $124bn fortune.
