Amazon is pausing hiring for a number of months, in the latest sign that all is not well with the retail giant.

The company will “pause on new incremental hires in our corporate workforce”, according to Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, who announced the policy yesterday in a memo to staff.

Amazon has implemented hiring pauses across various areas of its company over the past few weeks, including Amazon Web Services, and the retail and logistics operations.

The company reduced its overall workforce by close to 100,000 during the June quarter, but still has more than 1.5 million full- and part-time workers.

“We anticipate keeping this pause in place for the next few months,” Galetti explained, “and will continue to monitor what we’re seeing in the economy and the business to adjust as we think makes sense.

“In general, depending on the business or area of the company, we will hire backfills to replace employees who move on to new opportunities, and there are some targeted places where we will continue to hire people incrementally.”

Galetti stresses “this is not the first time that we’ve faced uncertain and challenging economies in our past”, pointing out the wax and wane of the company’s hiring.

“While we have had several years where we’ve expanded our headcount broadly, there have also been several years where we’ve tightened our belt and were more streamlined in how many people we added.

“With fewer people to hire this moment, this should give each team an opportunity to further prioritise what matters most to customers and the business, and to be more productive.”

Shares of Amazon are down more than 45 per cent this year.