Amazon puts its retail hiring on ice, report says

Amazon is pressing pause on corporate hiring in its retail division, which includes its brick-and-mortar and online shops, for the remainder of the year, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times.

In an email response to WGB, Amazon did not go so far as to confirm the hiring freeze but said the company “continues to have a significant number of open roles available across the company.”

“We have many different businesses at various stages of evolution, and we expect to keep adjusting our hiring strategies in each of these businesses at various junctures,” Amazon Spokesman Brad Glasser said.

Amazon’s hiring freeze announcement came in the form of an email to recruiters, according to The Times, which noted that more than 10,000 jobs remain open in Amazon’s retail division. The retailer said in the letter that hiring would resume early next year, according to the report.

In August, London-based media reported that Amazon was slowing the growth of the Amazon Fresh chain in the U.K. due to “disappointing sales and economic headwinds.”

In the U.S., Amazon this month opened its 44th Amazon Fresh location, this one in East Pasadena, California.  

Nationwide, hiring seems to be slowing slightly, according to Labor Department numbers released this week. In August, about 10.1 million positions remained open, down from 11.2 million in July, and layoffs rose slightly in August.

Retail giant Walmart last month, for example, said it intends to hire 40,000 additional workers to fill seasonal and full-time roles as the holidays draw near. But that number is 110,000 workers shy of its seasonal hiring plans from 2021.

Target, meanwhile, said it would hire 100,000 seasonal workers, the same number the Minneapolis-based retailer enlisted last year.