US Economy: Amazon Freezes Corporate Hiring Amid Possible Recession
E-commerce giant Amazon announced Thursday that it will stop all new incremental hires in its corporate workforce as it tries to get ahead of an uncertain U.S. economy.
The freeze is expected to last for at least the next few months. Amazon said that it will monitor the economy and adjust accordingly.
Amazon's human resources chief Beth Galetti explained in a memo that its decision comes as "the economy in an uncertain place and in light of how many people we have hired in the last few years."
"We're facing an unusual macro-economic environment and want to balance our hiring and investments with being thoughtful about this economy," Galetti said.
The move comes following Amazon's announcement in October to freeze hiring for corporate roles in its retail business.
Amazon has corporate workers spread out throughout facilities across the U.S. that look over its associates along with many remote corporate workers.
The company has three corporate offices in the U.S. in Seattle, Nashville, and Arlington, Texas.
Amazon plans to promote corporate positions from within until further notice and will make acceptations to hire in mandatory areas.
Amazon is the second-largest employer in the U.S. with about 1.5 million employees.
"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," Galetti said in the release.
Many economists have talked about a looming recession.
Economists polled for Bankrate's Third-Quarter Economic Indicator in October said there's a 65% chance that the economy could contract within the next 12 to 18 months.
Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University, said in August that he expects "one whopper of a recession in 2023."
"We will have a recession because we've had five months of zero M2 growth, money supply growth, and the Fed isn't even looking at it," Hanke told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia."
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