San Diego, Jan. 31 (BNA): Amazon will cut 100 tech and other jobs in San Diego as part of a company-wide downsizing announced earlier this month.
The Seattle-based e-commerce giant, which put its roots in San Diego about five years ago, filed papers for the Amendment and Notice to Retrain (WARN) Act with state and local recruiters earlier this month.
California’s WARN Act requires companies to provide 60 days’ notice of layoffs if they have 75 or more employees, according to dpa.
According to a WARN notice, most workers being let go in San Diego work in technical or human resources fields, led by software development engineers. Applied scientists, data scientists and recruiters were among the jobs cut.
An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the WARN orders, which included 157 jobs in Santa Clara County, 104 in San Francisco County, 86 in Orange County, and 57 in Los Angeles County.
He declined to comment – including the total number of workers the company employs locally. But based on the square footage of its office leases in the region, it’s estimated that Amazon had more than 500 workers in the region before the layoffs.
In a public letter published earlier this month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the uncertain economy and rapid hiring resulting from the pandemic had prompted Amazon to reassess workforce levels.
The company announced earlier this month that it plans to cut 18,000 jobs globally. Layoffs amount to about 6% of Amazon’s roughly 300,000 work force.
The losses are concentrated in Amazon’s stores, people, expertise and technology companies.
In November, Amazon also allowed workers to move into its establishments and books — including 260 employees in Santa Clara County. Other major technology companies have also cut staff numbers due to fears of an economic slowdown. They include the Meta Platforms of Facebook, Google, Cisco Systems, Salesforce, Intel, and Microsoft. The bulk of Amazon’s workforce is based in San Diego from a 129,000-square-foot office on Campus Point in University City.
Last year, Amazon leased another 123,000-square-foot building at The Collection in UTC, which it was slated to occupy this year.
Demand for tech talent in San Diego remains strong despite concerns about the direction of the economy, said Phil Blair, co-founder of Manpower Staffing. He said companies often “appropriately size” their staffing levels after a period of rapid growth. “If this continues next year, it could be a problem,” he said. “But right now, there are roughly two jobs for every job applicant. That’s a generalization. But especially in high-tech, they’re going back to work for someone else.”
FKN