Amazon is Cutting Hundreds of Corporate Jobs

In a rare move for the online retail giant, Amazon.com is laying off hundreds of corporate workers in its Seattle headquarters and elsewhere, according to a Seattle Times report. The corporate cuts come after an eight-year hiring spree, taking the company from 5,000 employees in 2010 to 40,000 employees in its Seattle headquarters, and gobbling up several retail businesses throughout the country in the process. However, according to the report, Amazon’s rising employee numbers over the last two years left some departments over budget and with too many staff on hand.

Total Retail's Take: When Amazon is laying off workers, what must the rest of the retail industry be thinking? Furthermore, imagine if you're one of the Amazon employees being let go. Your employer just reported record profits for the fourth quarter of 2017 — net income for the quarter was $1.9 billion, and for the year it was $3 billion — and is reportedly saving $789 million from the recent corporate tax cut, and yet you're still receiving a pink slip? I know what I would be thinking: ‘You mean to tell me that there's not something you could find for me to do as the company tries to take over basically everything, from retail to logistics and more? So much for the humanitarian Jeff Bezos.’ Perhaps I'm being naive, and likely am, but come on, $3 billion in profits and people are losing their jobs?!?