How Amazon Layoff could Change The Fate of Tech Forever

After Twitter and Meta, tech giant Amazon is preparing for the biggest layoff in the history of tech

Amazon is planning to lay off as many as 10,000 employees in "corporate and technology" across the world, The New York Times reported on Monday. This follows a spate of sackings and hiring freezes across the tech sector, most prominently by Meta, which laid off over 11,000 employees last week. The main reason is the contraction in demand as the world comes out of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic-induced lockdowns forced people indoors and made them buy more online, spend more time on social media sites, consume more streaming content, and play games with others, are almost over.

This started showing in the numbers of tech companies that were riding a boom for the past few years and hired to sustain the increased demand. As people return to offices and rediscover the outdoors, engagement across platforms is dropping, along with revenue. As a result, fewer people are needed to manage these platforms. Companies that thought the pandemic bump will be sustained by changed user behavior are realizing this is not the case.

To make matters worse, there are indicators that a global recession is in the offing and is already hitting demand for non-essential products in many markets. A purchase that can be put off, is being deferred in many cases.

For workers, Amazon has been one of the most stable employers in tech. The layoffs, which have not yet been officially announced by Amazon, will be the largest in the company's history. Amazon trimming its workforce is a signal that consumer sentiments are low, especially weeks before the holiday season which is usually the best time of the year for e-commerce. Amazon is expected to lay off workers in the devices vertical as the spike in demand for Alexa devices starts muting across the world.

The most significant trimming has come from Meta, the parent company of Facebook, which seems impacted by falling engagement on its platforms coupled with ad tracking policies, which have impacted the effectiveness of campaigns on its platforms. Meta laid off over 11,000 workers last week. The more visible trimming, however, has been at Twitter, following Elon Musk's takeover of the micro-blogging platform. He claims the sackings are needed to rationalize the platform's business model.