The economy has consumers and investors worried, and the former have punished tech company stocks in recent weeks by selling them off.
Consumers are strongly impacted by inflation, which is at its highest level in 40 years. This inflation affects the prices of almost all products and services. It urges caution. Aggressive central bank interest rate hikes to combat these price hikes threaten to push the economy into recession, some economists say.
But for Jeff Bezos, the American economy is already in recession. The founder of Amazon (AMZN) – Get a free report is well placed to take the pulse of the economy because the e-commerce giant is a juggernaut serving consumers and businesses alike.
“Some people say we may already be in a recession. Do you think we are?” Bezos was asked during an interview with CNN.
“I don’t know if we’re technically in a recession, economists argue about that – they have technical definitions,” Bezos replied. “But I can tell you the economy is not doing very well right now. Things are slowing down. You see layoffs in many sectors of the economy, people are slowing down.”
Then he added: “The probability is that we are not in a recession now, but we will probably be there very soon.”
“Take some risks off the table”
Bezos was then asked what advice he would give small businesses during these trying times.
“My advice to people, to small business owners, is don’t take any risks. If you’re thinking of making a purchase, maybe slow down that purchase a bit,” the billionaire said. “If you’re an individual and you’re thinking of buying a new big screen TV, maybe slow down, save that money, see what happens. Same with a fridge, new car, whatever, let’s cut out some table risks.”
“If you’re a small business, maybe delay some capital purchases: do you need that new equipment? risks could make the difference for this small business.”
When asked how long he thought the recession would last, the entrepreneur said it was “very difficult” to make a prediction, but advised people to “hope for the best and prepare for the worse”.
This advice is similar to that which Bezos had already given on October 18 with the only difference that for the billionaire there is no longer any doubt that we are in a recession.
“Yes, the odds in this economy are telling you to batten down the hatches,” Bezos tweeted Oct. 18.
Mass layoffs
This call to tighten the belt is the recipe for his business. Amazon began rolling out massive job cuts on Tuesday to respond to an economic slowdown that could turn into a recession in the coming months.
The company is expected to cut 10,000 jobs, or about 3% of its workforce, an unprecedented decision in its history.
The owner of Whole Foods has begun notifying affected employees. According to testimonials and social media posts, the downsizing affects multiple divisions, including Alexa and cloud gaming unit Luna.
“Unfortunately, I have been affected by today’s layoff along with 10,000 other Amazonians. It’s very difficult for all of us and I’m still trying to navigate through this, while being constrained by the deadline of be on a #visa,” Shivani Parate said on LinkedIn. , who is a former software development engineer at Amazon. “I am nothing but grateful for the time I spent at Amazon, learning and collaborating with some of the brightest people in the industry.”
“Im immediately seeking a Software/Machine Learning Engineer position. Thanks in advance for any connections, advice or opportunities you can offer! Message me with any leads or contact me at shivani.parate @gmail.com Thanks again!”
The e-commerce giant is not the only one to carry out massive layoffs to limit the damage of the current economic situation. Meta Platforms announced last week the loss of 11,000 jobs, or 13% of the group’s 87,000 employees. These were the first cuts in Facebook’s history since its inception in 2004.
“In this new environment, we need to become more capital efficient,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees. “We’ve reduced costs across our business, including cutting budgets, cutting benefits and reducing our real estate footprint. We’re restructuring teams to increase efficiency.”
Downsizing has spread across the tech and crypto sector: Twitter, Lyft, Coinbase, Stripe, Microsoft have all recently cut jobs.
Alphabet, Apple and others have frozen hiring or are slowing the pace of hiring.
#Jeff #Bezos #dire #prediction