Amazon has frozen hiring in areas of its web services division, just days after founder Jeff Bezos warned of a looming recession.
Amazon Web Services is a hugely successful division, bringing in A$98 billion in revenue last year. Job candidates are now reportedly being told that roles they were in line for were no longer available.
This comes just weeks after Amazon froze hiring in its retail and logistics operations, at the time insisting that job cuts would not impact the AWS division.
Amazon shares dropped a modest 1.7% to US$117.77 after the freeze was reported.
The timing is interesting, coming days after Jeff Bezos publicly warned on a looming recession.
“Yep, the probabilities in this economy tell you to batten down the hatches,” Bezos said, sharing a warning from a CNBC analyst.
Yep, the probabilities in this economy tell you to batten down the hatches. https://t.co/SwldRdms5v
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) October 18, 2022
A spokesperson for AWS confirmed the freeze, although they worded it less aggressively.
“In some areas of AWS we have met our hiring needs, and in others we have thousands of job openings,” the spokesperson said.
“Across Amazon, our many different businesses are at various stages of evolution, and we expect to keep adjusting our hiring strategies in each of these businesses at various junctures.”
Despite the freeze, Amazon is still scrambling to hire 150,000 seasonal workers for the upcoming holiday season.