Amazon's restructure in US to have ripple effect in India? Job cuts a possibility, hints report

Reports of Amazon.com Inc laying off hundreds of employees in their Seattle office as well as their global operations emerged yesterday. According to reports, this move is likely to have an impact on Amazon's India operations. The rare job cut comes as the company is shifting resources to areas like Alexa. According to reports in the US media, the company is making head-count adjustments across the country and is part of its annual planning process, as said to them by Amazon.

According to a report in The Economic Times, there have been some developments and restructuring in the India business as well. Some employees have been let go, some have been put under performance review plans, while some have been moved internally to different roles.

A source mentioned to the newspaper that Amazon had 'over hired' in India and might now trim the operations. In 2017 alone, the company created 1,30,000 jobs globally. Its full-time and part-time headcount surged 66 percent in the fourth quarter to 5,66,000 from a year earlier.

However, the report mentions that Amazon India said that they continue to hire for their headcount requirements in the country. Amazon has stiff competition from home-grown giant Flipkart, so, it is unlikely that the India unit would see a lot of change.

The company has a strong workforce in India with 50,000 employees out of which 30,000 are delivery people and warehouse employees. It is Amazon's second-largest workforce in the world after US.

(With agency inputs)