Amazon’s Quandary: Cutting Workers Without Fueling Labor Unrest
- With sales growth slowing, company has too many employees
- Amazon said it will slow pace of warehouse construction
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Amazon.com Inc., having added hundreds of thousands of workers during the pandemic, now faces a quandary: how to trim its workforce to match slowing e-commerce sales growth without fueling labor unrest and giving unions more ammunition.
When the world’s largest online retailer reported earnings on Thursday, it acknowledged that the extra logistical capacity added to handle a surge in demand from homebound consumers has left it with too many workers and a surfeit of warehouse space. With shoppers returning to their pre-outbreak spending habits, the company lost money in the last quarter, posted the slowest sales growth since 2001 and warned that revenue and profits would suffer in the current period.