Amazon Says It's Continuing to Grow 'Aggressively,' Despite Layoffs at Seattle Base

Amazon is “making headcount adjustments across the company” as part of its annual planning process, a spokeswoman responded to our questions Monday on an article in the Seattle Times about "rare" layoffs of “hundreds of corporate employees” in its Seattle headquarters. She described the layoffs as “small reductions in a couple of places and aggressive hiring in others” but didn't give a head count. Amazon plans to find “holes” in the areas where it's hiring for affected employees, she said, and the company is continuing to grow “pretty aggressively” in Seattle and the U.S. overall. The company has 3,900 corporate jobs open in Seattle and 12,000 worldwide, and it created 130,000 jobs last year, she said. It had more than 560,000 employees at the end of 2017, she said.