GARNER – Amazon is pausing hiring for corporate roles, the company shared with employees on Wednesday.
The e-commerce giant then posted that notice to their website on Thursday.
“With the economy in an uncertain place and in light of how many people we have hired in the last few years, Andy and S-team decided this week to pause on new incremental hires in our corporate workforce,” the letter reads. “We had already done so in a few of our businesses in recent weeks and have added our other businesses to this approach.”
The company announced plans to hire 1,000 workers in the Triangle last month, though those were not corporate roles. And last week, a federal regulator said that Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, violated federal labor laws multiple times in 2022.
It’s been a bit of a rocky month for Amazon, too, as the company’s stock price took a drop following the tech giant’s quarterly earnings report.
The company maintains multiple facilities in North Carolina as distribution centers, including one in Garner, where employees are working to form a union known as Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity & Empowerment, or C.A.U.S.E.
Union at Amazon center in Garner? Organizers push their plan as Durham warehouse closes
Pause due to economic uncertainty
Now, the company has cited economic uncertainty as a reason to pause hiring for its corporate roles.
“We anticipate keeping this pause in place for the next few months, and will continue to monitor what we’re seeing in the economy and the business to adjust as we think makes sense,” the statement posted on the company’s website reads. “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.”
The letter also cites what it calls an “unusual macro-economic environment” and notes that the company aims to “balance our hiring and investments with being thoughtful about this economy.”
“We still intend to hire a meaningful number of people in 2023, and remain excited about our significant investments in our larger businesses, as well as newer initiatives like Prime Video, Alexa, Grocery, Kuiper, Zoox, and Healthcare,” the letter reads. “With fewer people to hire this moment, this should give each team an opportunity to further prioritize what matters most to customers and the business, and to be more productive.”
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