Amazon to trim 100 tech jobs in San Diego as part of corporate headcount reduction

Amazon is cutting 100 technology jobs and other positions in San Diego as part of a company-wide downsizing announced earlier this month.

The Seattle e-commerce giant, which put down corporate roots in San Diego about five years ago, filed Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) paperwork with state and local employment officials earlier this month. California’s WARN law requires companies to provide 60 days’ notice of layoffs if they have 75 or more employees.

Most of the workers being let go in San Diego are in technical or human resources fields, led by software development engineers, according to the WARN notice. Applied scientists, data scientists and recruiters also were among the jobs eliminated.

An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the WARN filings, which included 157 job cuts in Santa Clara County, 104 in San Francisco County, 86 in Orange County and 57 in Los Angeles County. He declined further 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 a public message posted earlier this month, Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy said an uncertain economy and rapid hiring coming out of the pandemic led Amazon to reassess workforce levels. The company announced earlier this month that it plans to cut 18,000 jobs globally.

The layoffs amount to about 6 percent of Amazon’s roughly 300,000 corporate work force. The losses are concentrated in Amazon’s stores and people, experience and technology businesses. In November, Amazon also let workers go in its devices and books organizations—including 260 employees in Santa Clara County.

Other big tech companies also have been trimming their headcounts over fears of an economic slowdown. They include Facebook parent Meta Platforms, Google, Cisco Systems, Salesforce, Intel and Microsoft.

The bulk of Amazon’s San Diego workforce is based out of a 129,000-square-foot office in University City’s Campus Point. Last year, Amazon leased another 123,000-square-foot building at The Collection in UTC, which it was slated to occupy this year.

Phil Blair, a co-founder of Manpower Staffing, said demand for tech talent in San Diego remains strong despite worries over the direction of the economy. Companies often “right-size” their staffing levels after a period of rapid growth, he said.

“If this keeps up for the next year, then it could be a problem,” he said. “But right now, there are almost two jobs for every job applicant. That is a generalization. But especially in high tech, they are going back to work for somebody else.”

2023 The San Diego Union-Tribune.
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