Amazon laid off about 500 employees in India across different verticals recently.
In another shocking move by the tech giant Amazon, the company has now decided to hold the employment offer letters of campus recruits from top Indian universities including the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and National Institute of Technology (NIT) until next year, as per a report in Mashable.
A graduate from IIT Bombay who was given a job at Amazon as a Software Development Engineer said that the start date on his offer letter had been moved to January. The impacted alumnus asserted that this problem spans all IIT campuses, indicating that many applicants have experienced offer letter delays, as per Mashable report. The alumnus added that several other interns from various colleges also received their offer letters later than expected.
A spokesperson said in a statement, "In light of the challenging economic conditions, we're delaying the start dates for some of our college hires by up to six months. We're offering assistance to help address any financial impact."
The company said that it would not "revoke or rescind" any offer letters issued to the campus hires. "This decision does not involve revoking or rescinding any offer letters that have been extended to students. Amazon remains committed to university recruiting and developing next generation of leaders and builders," they added.
This comes as the company laid off about 500 employees in India across different verticals a few days ago. This fresh round of downsizing is part of the broader layoffs announced by Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy in March, affecting approximately 9,000 employees.
The biggest online retailer in the world spent a substantial portion of last year adjusting to a significant slowdown in e-commerce growth as consumers resumed their pre-pandemic behaviours. Along with Google, Meta and other big tech firms, Amazon is also trimming ranks.
It is also to be noted that Amazon's e-commerce operation in India experienced a slowdown in growth, highlighting the challenging market conditions in the country.