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Amazon cuts 16k jobs

reuters.com

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Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#81

Post by computerphage »

rich_sasha wrote: post #68
paxys wrote: post #4

Every large company is updating its standard layoffs announcement press release from "economic headwinds" to "AI".

Excuse is only half the story. I don't fully understand why they are doing it though. Companies hire people to make money, not as an act of social conformance. Global economy doesn't look that terrible. Nor is the AI story that believable. Is it just the CEO Zeitgeist? All the guys at Aspen talking about what fraction they cut, just as 5 years ago they bragged how bloated their org chart is? TBH the "ZIRP overhiring"…

Why isn't the AI story believable? It seems to me that AI is getting more and more productive

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#82

Post by notTooFarGone »

sejje wrote: post #35
still-learning wrote: post #11

I wonder what kind of unprecedented economic growth we'd be seeing right now if we kept with the status quo rather than imposing tariffs and scaring off foreign investors.

[flagged]

Dollar is losing value by the day, gold and silver on record high and somehow this is not an indicator for huge uncertainty?

China is beating the US on pretty much every stage and this only accelerates this.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#83

Post by hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm »

yodsanklai wrote: post #67
focusgroup0 wrote: post #37

>Amazon axes 16,000 American jobs as it ... relocates to a larger campus in India https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/10/amazon-to-invest-additiona...

I wonder how this is also related to the attacks on the H1B visa.

Nothing to do with it, just following a trend before the attacks: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-nadella-pledges-3-b...

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#84

Post by knowitnone3 »

baxtr wrote: post #20
still-learning wrote: post #11

I wonder what kind of unprecedented economic growth we'd be seeing right now if we kept with the status quo rather than imposing tariffs and scaring off foreign investors.

I mean maybe that's the good news. There is huge potential for an upswing!

So Putin is culling his people so the next generation can have more!

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#85

Post by culi »

rich_sasha wrote: post #68
paxys wrote: post #4

Every large company is updating its standard layoffs announcement press release from "economic headwinds" to "AI".

Excuse is only half the story. I don't fully understand why they are doing it though. Companies hire people to make money, not as an act of social conformance. Global economy doesn't look that terrible. Nor is the AI story that believable. Is it just the CEO Zeitgeist? All the guys at Aspen talking about what fraction they cut, just as 5 years ago they bragged how bloated their org chart is? TBH the "ZIRP overhiring"…

> Companies hire people to make money, not as an act of social conformance.

I think you also underestimate how much hiring gives these large companies political leverage. A town can be completely destroyed when one of these companies threatens to move a factory or office

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#87

Post by ceejayoz »

rich_sasha wrote: post #68
paxys wrote: post #4

Every large company is updating its standard layoffs announcement press release from "economic headwinds" to "AI".

Excuse is only half the story. I don't fully understand why they are doing it though. Companies hire people to make money, not as an act of social conformance. Global economy doesn't look that terrible. Nor is the AI story that believable. Is it just the CEO Zeitgeist? All the guys at Aspen talking about what fraction they cut, just as 5 years ago they bragged how bloated their org chart is? TBH the "ZIRP overhiring"…

> I could never understand how all these companies could hire so many people for so much money, only to have them work on later-to-be-cannes open source projects.

Given how much of these companies runs on such projects, it really shouldn't be surprising. It's a numbers game for them; Facebook doesn't mind if 300 little OSS initiatives fail if it gets them React.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#88

Post by xeromal »

glimshe wrote: post #27

I've been hearing about massive Amazon layoffs for a few years now. How come the company still exists? Are these layoffs followed by hiring at cheaper regions or different parts of the company? From my perspective as an occasional Amazon customer, things are pretty much unchanged.

My company behaves similarly to Amazon and we drop the bottom % performers every year via PIP. IDK if this is what Amazon did with this layoff but it's probably intentional churn.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#89

Post by bluGill »

paxys wrote: post #4

Every large company is updating its standard layoffs announcement press release from "economic headwinds" to "AI".

Economic headwinds are rarely used. There is always something else they blame it on. It has been this way for the 30 years I've been old enough to pay attention - and those older than me report it has been even longer. There are downturns every few years, in turn meaning layoffs - and they always blame something other than the downturn.

They also always claim the layoff will enable more efficiency.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#90

Post by adamsb6 »

rat9988 wrote: post #76
yodsanklai wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how this is also related to the attacks on the H1B visa.

I'm not american, but it seems to me there are enough american job seekers in CS to justify not needing H1B. I'm not sure anyway what is the relationship between the potential difficulty of hiring new folks, and firing current folks in USA to offshore roles, are relates.

There's not a surplus of American developers that can pass interview loops at top tech employers.
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