Amazon Downsizes Workforce, Will Focus on Fast Growing Businesses

Present day dynamic business environment warrants a change in strategy every now and then.
Not even the big names are immune to this phenomenon. Amazon, the largest online retailer in
the world proved to be no exception.

The U.S. based retailer announced that it was laying of hundreds of jobs with the objective of
shifting focus on fast-growing businesses. The online giant has not hired people since late last
year when it announced a hiring freeze.

Prior to that though, the company was on an expansion spree and had hired more than 1, 30,000
people. The acquisition of Whole Foods had augmented the head count by 90,000. The latest
announcement is a volte-face.

In the near future employees in the retail business like toys, books and groceries will part ways.
Meanwhile, the head count in Alexa and AWS will increase.

"As part of our annual planning process, we are making head count adjustments across the
company — small reductions in a couple of places and aggressive hiring in many others. For
affected employees, we work to find roles in the areas where we are hiring," an Amazon
spokesperson was quoted as saying to CNBC.

Meanwhile, Amazon is also narrowing down on its second headquarters. It has shortlisted 20
locations from amongst the 238 bids that it received. The region where Amazon sets up its
second headquarters will benefit from $5 billion of investment and creation of 50,000 jobs.