Recession Times

As always, we should ignore all government pronouncements as to the state of the economy.  Thus, when we are told that “recession is not coming” or “inflation is temporary”, we should instead look to what’s actually happening.

We all know that over the past dozen or so years, Christmas spending has moved away from High Street to the Internet — most especially to places like Amazon.com, to mention just the biggest.

Therefore, as we approach this festive [sic]  season, we would expect that Amazon would be hiring staff to handle the increased demand for merchandise, yes?

No.

The New York Times reports that according to verified sources, Amazon plans to reduce its corporate and technology workforce by as much as 10,000 employees as soon as this week, the largest downsizing in the firm’s history.

Merry Christmas, y’all.

10 comments

  1. Apples vs. Oranges. “Corporate and technology workforce” have almost nothing to do with online shopping. They’re referring to corporate overhead (Accounting, HR, etc.) and information technology employees (think internet hosting, server farms, commercial and government professional services contracting).

    I doubt it even impacts those maintaining Amazon.com. This has to do mostly with Amazon Web Services which provides commodity hosting and application development platforms to industries across the globe.

    1. Someone once pointed out:

      “Amazon Prime is just the gift shop out in front of Amazon Web Services.”

  2. A serious economic recession is definitely coming. The government can’t just print / create trillions of dollars and sprinkle that around all while many people refuse to go to work without a bad result.

    What is the result?

    – shortages of goods and services. (Yes I know Walmart and Amazon have a ton of useless Chinese junk for sale for Christmas). I’m talking about shortages of real goods. Vehicles. Houses. Building materials. Generators. When you do find them, there are some, the prices are sky high and selection is not what it used to be. Don’t get me started on prices of heating oil, gas for cars, Diesel fuel, and clothing. Food is insanely priced lately. 8 bucks for a cheap fast food “full” size burger now. No fries or drink with that price.

    – the handful of us working people go to work, and we do more work for the same or less money with inflation. Our bosses treat us like shit, nothing is good enough and we are told we are lucky to have a job

    The useless assholes of society sit at home on welfare and Biden bucks and live for nothing or next to nothing while they have cell phones, home internet, free heat, free healthcare, reduced cost college, food stamps and free bus rides amount other free shit. All paid for by working people who stress to make their own ends meet.

    Democrats fucked us working people right ip the ass, raw dog no lube, Republicans suck too, because they talk about how they will help us but then they get in and don’t stop all of the bullshit.

    I’m voting for whoever the Republican is in 2024. It’s the lesser of the evils. I liked trump, and still do, however , I think desantis is the one we should rally behind now if we
    Want to defeat the democrats.

    If a democrat wins an election in 24 against Desantis , then we know without a doubt that bullshit was rigged.

    “This country has gone to hell in a hand basket”

    Thanks for the assfucking democrats and free loaders. I hope when the economic crash happens those fuckers feel a shortage of food , and other shit they need.

    Fuck free loaders. Seriously. Fuck them. Too many people in this country sucking the public tit

    In closing – Jeff Bezos himself in a recent interview told Americans to get ready for economic issues and to think about holding off on large purchases.
    Maybe someone should have told the government not to print and sprinkle out into the economy so much “free” money.

    1. “…desantis is the one we should rally behind now if we
      Want to defeat the democrats.”
      =========

      I read stuff like this and all I can do is shake my head and think, “After everything that has gone on over the past, well, forever, it still hasn’t a clue and most likely never will.”

  3. Back in the day General Electric was known, accurately or not, for “letting go” the bottom 10 percent of it’s workforce every year, based on performance reviews.

    Amazon has, according to one source, over 1.6 million employees.

    10 thousand employees is less than 1 percent.

    This someone who weights 200 pounds “going on a diet” and losing one pound.

    1. The bottom 10% ( each year ) rule was a policy mandate by Jack Welch as detailed in his Autobiography ” Jack – Straight from the Gut” ( a highly recommended read ). Based on the theory that any large organization has at least that much deadwood. It helps keep departments from growing for the sake of growth and motivates the other 90%. Worked well for GE at the time. I’m sure that Amazon’s HR department could be trimmed by 50% and hiring would speed up in other more critical departments.

  4. To your point, they ARE hiring front-end staff, just peeling off the back-end dead weight now that the election has passed. The two largest distribution centers near me (Northern VA and Southern PA) are sending out recruiters to find anyone with a clean driver’s license and a cargo van, or even a decent sized SUV. A small pallet of deliverables can net you between $600-1000/day during the Christmas season (that’s a 12-hour+ workday). A 2-man crew (one driving/navigating, one humping the package) can do two pallets in a long day.
    And yet, the jobs go wanting…

      1. If you need to lay-off staff in the “Elect Democrats in the Mid – terms Department” and hire people in the “Package Delivery” department, That’s what you do. Even if the overall workforce increases, the media will still spin it as ” Amazon Lays off 10,000″ because a headline that reads ” Amazon lays of 1 % of it staff while hiring 15,000 for Xmass” is too long and doesn’t get any clicks.

  5. Whether or not the package load on Amazon and FedEx will drop precipitously, they will continue to deliver till the holiday load is done. Easter, maybe. The surviving workers will work harder, longer hours, and the extra workload will be enough to quiet most of those malcontents who spread the sedition of unionization.

    I fully expect similar announcements from UPS and the Postal Service soon. Merry Holidays, you pathetic losers!

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