Live data from Hacker News

Amazon cuts 16k jobs

reuters.com

431–440 of 1001 posts

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#431
post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The stock market is mostly just an inverse of currency health and tends to be inline or slightly above inflation on average... This is demonstrably false? Long-term average US inflation since 1913 is 3.1% [0]. Long-term nominal average US stock returns since 1928 are 9.94% [1]. A nearly 7% advantage compounded every year for roughly a century is not "slightly above", it is absolutely enormous. Over 60,000% enormous…

For rate rises that are enacted to slow inflation (which slows stock market growth as you said) i think you have the cause and effect reversed. The best way to see how inflation and stocks are linked is to look at economies where inflation is not intentionally slowed by rate rises. The stocks go up more or less with inflation (and some small % of gains they may have on top as you say). When you have rate rises that s…

I thought you were joking with you earlier comments.

> The stock market is mostly just an inverse of currency health

> The stock market [] tends to be inline or slightly above inflation on average

Now, you're saying the following, when there's no strong positive link.

> The stocks go up more or less with inflation

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#432
post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And yet prices are marginally up while all the "economists" expected major inflation. Dollar vs Euro is at same level now as it was in 2019 - there are benefits to the economy as well when the currency is less strong.

I keep seeing this “marginally higher” statement about prices, usually as part of a “things are actually fine” argument, but everything in my life has increased in cost in a way I just don’t understand. Is it that these are counterbalanced in some way making it not macroeconomically relevant?

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#433
post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok let's try this another way: if you are a big online retailer in a country, you will not have a big corporate presence in that country. Now it's on you to think of an example to disprove me, certainly I'm not going to think an example to disprove myself. Do you see the problem with this pattern? I could claim all sorts of things and then say, well sorry you have to go do all this work to refute my claims. Something…

Sure, they've already done it, Amazon, in India.

Thanks, let me make some other claims and then you can spend time disproving them. Does that sound like a good idea?

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> H1-B is stupid on its face. You're seriously telling me that this software engineering job absolutely cannot be filled by an American? That doesn't pass the laugh test. The job description is a senior full stack product developer fluent in all programming languages and frameworks. Salary is $70,000/year. Somehow they can never find Americans to fill those jobs. They'll go on Linkedin complaining that Americans are…

That seems low. Is it a corporate strategy to set a low salary and when nobody local fills it (because it's below the competitive rate) they get to hire H1-B?

That's the commonly used method for more than a decade, yes.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#435
post #351

I like to think about this story from years ago when Nintendo wasn't doing so well and there was talk of layoffs "Nintendo CEO’s refusal to layoff staff goes viral following industry-wide cuts" https://www.nme.com/news/gaming-news/nintendo-ceos-refusal-t... I realize these companies aren't identical, but interesting to compare approaches. I also expect Amazon hires and fires more easily instead of growing more slowly…

Bear in mind Nintendo has ~0.005% of the employees Amazon does

If you exclude non-corporate it's only ~300k.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since the HN reaction to layoffs almost always is about blaming H1B, here’s a few more things the headline misses: 1. Cuts were global 2. Cuts in US also include H1B employees 3. 16000 roles are corporate roles, not just tech related, H1B program is not generally utilized for those roles 4. Expansion in India is not just tech. Amazon is a big retailer in India. Understandably if you’re seeing revenue growth in India,…

Shouldn't we all want H1B rather than offshoring? That keeps the facilities here, the local employment options here, the growth here, the tax base here... We should want more smart people moving to this country. More business creation, more capital, more labor, more output. Immigration is total economic growth for America, non zero-sum. Offshoring is not only economic loss, but second order loss: we lose the capacity…

I want the loopholes on H1Bs to be closed. H1B is a great concept to get foreign talent that found domestically. But these days is a shell game that's turned into a way to put shackles on employees who can't job hop. It hurts both groups in the long run.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#437
post #244
post #97

Interesting perspective of an L7 who was laid off at Amazon https://xcancel.com/PlumbNick/status/2016500347053773198

He is right, but what I don't see in the post is a solution. How do you stop multinational companies like Amazon from using the global talent pool as they see fit and pay whatever wages the local market will bear? Without that it comes off as the standard "elect me because foreigners are bad".

The solution according to the poster is regulation made by experts which is why he's running for Congress. It's maybe not the solution you were hoping for but it is the solution he proposes :)

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#438
post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American this does not match my experience at all. What profession were those women looking for?

Vets, climate change scientists, doctors, environmental lawyers and athletics. Bonus points for trustfunds and influencers. Women want to make as much as men but also want their partner to make more than them. Ever see a female doctor marrying a plumber or construction worker? No they marry Male doctors or lawyer of higher status.

> climate change scientists

They aren't known for making a lot of money, but I guess "I'm saving the world" is an attractive quality in a mate.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> H1-B is stupid on its face. You're seriously telling me that this software engineering job absolutely cannot be filled by an American? That doesn't pass the laugh test. The job description is a senior full stack product developer fluent in all programming languages and frameworks. Salary is $70,000/year. Somehow they can never find Americans to fill those jobs. They'll go on Linkedin complaining that Americans are…

Our competitors in another country will have no problem building those products. Then they'll be sold in America to American consumers. Then our industry deflates, because we can't compete on cost or labor scale / innovation. If we put up tariffs, we get a short respite. But now our goods don't sell as well overseas in the face of competition. Our industries still shrink. Eventually they become domestically uncompeti…

Innovation is why american salaries in tech are so high. They funded trillion dollar companies.

If that becomes so much of a commodity that some other countries can do it for pennies on the dime, then yes. Salaries will deflate. But we sure aren't offshoring (nor using most H1bs) to see more innovation. Quite the opposite.

Tech isn't manufacturing where the biggest supply line wins by default. That's why I'm not holding my breath that the US isn't going to be outcompeted on talent anytime soon. Of anything, its own greed will consume it.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because in my mind there are a number of large online retailers that operate in the United States for example, without a large corporate presence here. Amazon has a market share of 30-35% of ALL e-commerce in India. You’re making claims yourself, so I’d like to see examples of companies that operate at that scale in a country without corporate presence. Also, there is a logical fallacy here that doesn’t make sense.…

Here was the OP's claim: > if you are a big online retailer in a country, you will have a big corporate presence in that country. They made a general claim that a big retailer in a country will have a big corporate presence in that country. I don't know if that's true or not - hence my response. They didn't claim that a big retailer in India will have a big corporate presence, nor did claim that a retailer approachin…

Here’s the claim you made:

because in my mind there are a number of large online retailers that operate in the United States for example, without a large corporate presence here.

Post reply on HN