As the unemployment wave hits at the end of the year, a group of cross-border people are facing a job-hunting crisis!

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, many industries have entered a cold winter, and the cross-border industry is no exception. Big sellers have closed down, funds are tight, transformation is difficult, and even layoffs have been reported from time to time. Top sellers have repeatedly laid off employees, and small and medium-sized sellers have shrunk in size.

Many workers in the cross-border circle have been laid off from their popular positions and become unemployed.

As the Spring Festival holiday approaches, the plight of cross-border workers has not improved, but has become more serious. Some Amazon operators have found that the recruitment market is showing a trend of oversupply when looking for jobs. Not only has the salary dropped significantly, but the job search threshold has also been raised. Most of the messages they sent have been read but not replied. They are currently in the dilemma of looking for jobs everywhere.

For many Amazon operators, not only are they missing out on year-end bonuses, but they are also no longer getting the same promotions and salary increases they once did. They are facing a difficult time getting a salary increase, with several companies canceling their original salary increase systems and starting to cut salaries for some operators, and some even seeing their base salaries cut in half.

Under the double pressure, a group of cross-border people began to explore new ways out. Some operations chose to switch to other fields, while others chose to keep their jobs, stick to their posts, and try to find new ways out from performance and commissions. The overall market situation this year is obvious to all. Under the current situation, what are your expectations for 2023 and what choices will you make?

A group of cross-border people have lost their jobs and will have to wait until next year to find a job!

As the end of the year approaches, many cross-border companies have implemented strategic policies such as "layoffs, reductions in recruitment, and contraction" until the end of the year. A number of cross-border people have been forced to lose their jobs and are currently in the dilemma of constantly looking for a job.

"After so much trouble, it's finally the end of the year. I thought the company could survive, but the boss still gave us a notice that the company would be closing down." An operator said that he was suddenly laid off at this critical juncture at the end of the year and he really didn't know what to do.

Unlike the above-mentioned operator who was suddenly laid off at the end of the year, Xiao Li from Amazon Operations has been looking for a job for more than a month. As one of the job seekers at the end of the year, Xiao Li feels that it is increasingly difficult to find a job in Amazon Operations. When he opened the recruitment software, there was no scene of 99+ messages flooding the sky as before , but only a few dozen inquiries, and the key is that the positions are not matched yet. Many companies do not have many positions available, most of which are just job positions. Most of the messages sent to the companies that have weekends off are read but not replied, or there is no response after a few words.

At the same time, the salaries offered by these companies have also decreased compared to before. Previously, Xiao Li's salary was around 11K. When looking for a job, Xiao Li found that few companies offered salaries above 11K. Although most companies offer salaries of 7-13K on some recruitment websites, you will find that the salaries offered by these companies are relatively compromised during the actual interview. Expecting too high a salary is an important reason for many people to fail in interviews.

Coincidentally, there are many job seekers who feel the same way ↓

I was laid off in November and started looking for a job at the end of the month. I have interviewed seven or eight companies so far.

The company just paid me two months' severance pay, and I'm struggling over whether or not to look for a job.

I interviewed at 3 companies, and the salaries were all lower than my previous salary, which was 10K.

My salary was 9K, but I was first cut by the company and now I’m laid off.

My previous job paid 11K, and I just found a job that pays 8.5K. I’m wondering whether to take it or not.

I interviewed for several jobs, but the salaries were too low, so I decided to go home first and wait until after the Chinese New Year.

At the end of the year, it is really hard to find a job. From the market point of view, at this stage, except for a few big sellers with rising performance and small expansion, most Amazon sellers are in the stage of contraction and layoffs . For example, a 3C big seller laid off 700 people after its link was blocked, and a big seller with a sales volume of 10 billion yuan in South China City laid off 4,000 people. Of course, many big sellers are contracting to save their lives by reducing salaries for all employees and suspending employees' work.

The impact of the big sellers' actions on the market is self-evident. The reduction in layoffs has, to a certain extent, exacerbated the already tense supply and demand relationship in the market. The market is bad, market demand has dropped, and recruitment positions have obviously decreased, but there are still a large number of unemployed people pouring into the market. If they do not have core skills, it is difficult for them to find a good job quickly. With supply exceeding demand, it is inevitable that the salary and benefits of operational positions will decline.

Some industry insiders bluntly said that the salary that each operator gets nowadays is actually not related to their own ability, but follows the trend of the entire industry. If job seekers still want to seek a new job with the previous salary or higher salary, the chance of finding a job will be greatly reduced ; but it does not rule out that some companies will offer high salaries to operators with outstanding personal abilities and talents.

The oversupply has given many companies the opportunity to raise the threshold for job applications and select high-quality operations.

An HR said: "The company has posted an operations position, but there are dozens of people who came for the interview. We can slowly pick and choose from the pool of talents." Not only that, the company has also lowered the starting salary to 6K, and the educational level has been changed from junior college to undergraduate, and applicants are required to have 1-3 years of work experience.

There are plenty of operators in the industry, and companies have a lot of room for choice when recruiting. However, for operators, the daily cost of living cannot withstand long-term unemployment. Finding a stable job as soon as possible is the current focus, so some Amazon operators choose to automatically reduce their salaries. After looking for a job for a month, Xiao Liu, an operator, has reduced his initial expected monthly salary from 12K to 10K. At the same time, Xiao Liu no longer refutes the requirements of some companies such as one day off and overtime, and just wants to settle down in work as soon as possible.

But the reality is that a large number of cross-border companies have already started their annual holidays. Some companies have started their annual holidays in early January, some have started their annual holidays on January 8th, and some companies have even generously given out 23 days of holidays. At the same time, some HRs posted a message on WeChat Moments saying "the company is on holiday, recruitment is suspended, and will continue after the New Year." This means that if you want to find a job, it depends on whether the company is open or not, and you may have to wait until next year.

A netizen from Shenzhen said that there are fewer people on the subway recently. The subway, which used to be so crowded that you couldn't even squeeze in, has many empty seats these days. Am I the only one who is still working? The fact is obvious that a large number of migrant workers have rushed back to their villages to celebrate the New Year. Some migrant workers who have already returned to their villages have said bluntly: " I'm back to the village. I have a blind date. Please don't disturb me during the holiday. "

The words of migrant workers seem to confirm that saying. In the cross-border circle, no matter you are a seller, freight forwarder or service provider, no matter how many orders you have, how fast your logistics is, or how famous the company you serve is, as long as you choose to go home for the New Year, you are all the second girl and the dog at the head of the village, and you have to bow to reality: those who don’t have a partner are urged to go on blind dates, those who have a partner are urged to get married, those who are married are urged to have children, and those who have given birth to a child are urged to have a second child ...

At present, the Chinese New Year is the most important event. But for Amazon operators, the things they have to face after the Chinese New Year will not change. Amazon operators who are unemployed and looking for jobs still have to find jobs, and those Amazon operators who have been reduced in salary still have to face the fact that their base salary has been reduced.

The base salary has dropped by 1,400! Working in Amazon operations: Do I want to survive?

As the driving force for many workers to strive for success, salary is naturally one of their main concerns.

"According to the rules of previous years, the company would start raising salaries in March and October, but we have already notified that the salary increase in March has been cancelled, so I don't dare to expect a salary increase in October." A seller said. The final result also proved that the seller's guess was correct, and the salary increase in October was also cancelled.

The same situation is not limited to one company. When talking about the issue of salary increase, an Amazon seller said that the company had previously raised all salaries in March and September, but this year only raised salaries for some employees who changed positions, and the salaries of most employees remained the same as last year.

In addition, some companies have also changed the frequency of salary increases, from twice a year to once a year; the magnitude of salary increases has also been reduced. At the same time, companies have also specially formulated a new assessment system for salary increases, and employees need to perform well and complete the salary increase assessment before they can get the opportunity for a salary increase.

Some Amazon operators said they no longer dare to expect a salary increase, not only because the assessment standards for salary increase are too high, but more because they have lost confidence in the current environment. Even the year-end bonus that their bosses always talked about in previous years has not been mentioned. Do you still dare to think about a salary increase?

However, the cancellation of salary increases is not the worst thing. What is even worse is that some companies have begun to implement salary cuts.

An Amazon operator said that the company's main business is the Amazon platform, but the company's performance has declined since 2021, and the performance in 2022 is obviously not very good. In the middle of the year, the boss reformed the company internally, first replacing a group of senior executives and some high-paid procurement and development, and then in October began to implement salary reforms for the company's operating staff, which is the so-called salary cut, and the base salary was cut in half. A large number of people left the company, and some people chose to stay in the company based on the current environment and are currently in a flat state.

Some companies have also implemented individual salary cuts for individual operations. " Today, my boss's wife talked to me and wanted to reduce my base salary from 7,000 to 5,600. If it were you, would you accept it? " An Amazon operation said on a social platform. If I don't accept it, I will leave. It is reported that when the operation first entered the company, the boss used various means to reduce the operation's salary, such as not paying social security due to the high base salary and deducting the shipping fee when the commission was high. At the same time, the operation's commission period was also extended, from the initial monthly commission, to the subsequent quarterly commission, and then to the annual commission. The key is that his commission point has become half of that of other operations, unless the operation agrees to reduce his salary to 4,000.

Regarding the operation's experience, many industry insiders gave advice: "There is not much point in following such a boss. There will only be more pitfalls later. It is better to pack up and leave as soon as possible." However, the operation is still worried about the overall environment this year and is afraid that he will not be able to find a suitable job after leaving, so he is in an ambiguous state.

Of course, there are also companies that decide whether to increase or reduce salaries based on employee performance. For employees with outstanding performance, the company will choose to increase their salaries; for employees whose recent performance does not meet the standards, the company will implement salary cuts. In the eyes of HR, salary is a reflection of an employee's ability, experience, and position. It is relatively fair to decide whether to increase salaries based on performance, and it is believed that this will motivate employees to a certain extent.

With salary increases cancelled and base salaries cut in half, some workers could not bear it and chose to resign, hoping to achieve their wish of salary increase by changing jobs. However, the reality dealt them a heavy blow. The current market is oversupplied, and the base salary offered by the interviewing companies is often 1K-2K lower than the previous one. Benefits have also declined, and performance requirements have become more stringent. Many Amazon operations people are beginning to regret their impulsive resignation, as they have not been to work for 3 months and are still worried that their unemployment may become even longer.

This is indeed the case. Industry insiders pointed out that this year's market conditions and economic environment are obvious to all. Amazon's traffic has peaked, and the performance of many cross-border companies is not optimistic. There are many companies that are laying off employees and reducing recruitment. If operations personnel change jobs at will, they may not be able to find a satisfactory job for a long time, which may take up to a year. It is recommended that operations personnel be cautious and keep their current stable jobs.

But this did not change the decisions of some operators. When faced with situations such as the company canceling salary increases and cutting base salaries in half, some Amazon operators, in addition to choosing to resign, will also break the status quo by becoming private operators or changing careers.

Exploring new ways out, will Amazon still be doing well in 2023?

Earlier, a topic about "Amazon operations changed careers to sell stewed food" went viral in the cross-border circle, which seemed to confirm the rumor that Amazon operations were considering changing careers. The issue of changing careers is indeed a headache for many Amazon operations. If they change careers, they are afraid that they will be worse off than now; if they don't change careers, they are afraid that they will not have better opportunities when they are older.

Private agency operation is one of the directions considered by many Amazon operators. Previously, there were big sellers such as Tongtuo and Anker entering the market. Later, due to the changes in the overall environment in the cross-border circle in 2022, the private agency operation business has gradually heated up in the cross-border circle. A group of Amazon operators are providing private agency operation services to some companies on a part-time or full-time basis.

Cross-border e-commerce headhunters with a monthly salary of tens of thousands are also very attractive. Unlike the current market situation of oversupply of Amazon operation positions, the demand for cross-border e-commerce headhunters has remained high. It is understood that not only some big sellers will recruit management talents or vertical talents through headhunters, but also some platforms will dig up talents through headhunters. When Pinduoduo was preparing for TEMU earlier, it dug up a lot of talents through headhunters.

However, some operators have deeper considerations for themselves. They do not want to change careers and want to continue working in this industry. At the same time, due to concerns about various unstable situations under the epidemic, they cannot find better jobs if they leave, so they choose to stay in their original companies.

In this regard, some industry insiders have suggested that instead of trying to get a salary increase by changing jobs, it is better to work more on performance and commissions . Many high-paid operators still have high salaries during the epidemic. One important reason for this is that when the market is sluggish, in addition to insisting on improving their own operational capabilities, they are also improving product competitiveness and sales by continuously optimizing listings, rationally utilizing on-site and off-site marketing, and optimizing cost structures.

In 2023, Amazon's operations will be more demanding. As the epidemic eases, the economies of various countries are gradually recovering, and offline and online sales will gradually pick up, but at the same time, the competitive pressure will also increase. At this time, the role of operations positions becomes more important, and companies will have higher requirements for operations recruitment, not only in terms of work experience, but also in terms of academic qualifications and past performance.

Industry insiders said that the current situation of oversupply of Amazon operations positions in 2023 will not change in the short term, because most companies are downsizing for the winter, and the demand for employment will not increase significantly. At the same time, based on the current market situation, the number of job seekers interested in changing jobs will also decrease. This means that in 2023, it will still be difficult for Amazon operations staff who have left before the New Year to find a suitable job, unless you have strong skills.

So here comes the soul-searching question: Will Amazon still be doing well in 2023?

"The delivery fee has increased, the storage fee has increased, and the disposal fee has increased. Can the price of the product increase?" said an Amazon operator. Many people in the industry still have high expectations for Amazon, and they believe that it is only a matter of time before Amazon returns to its former glory.

Although competition on Amazon is fierce, you cannot deny that it can still bring higher profits to many sellers. According to data from an agency, in 2022, more than 60% of third-party sellers said that their profit margins on the Amazon platform were higher than 10%, and more than 30% of sellers said that their profit margins were higher than 20% . The profit margins of sellers on the Amazon platform are higher than those on other platforms.

At the same time, "striving for 2023" has become the goal of some sellers, and many companies have set sales targets for the coming year in advance. An Amazon operator said that the company has set sales targets for the first quarter of 2023, expanding new products, chasing sales, and increasing profits, making a small profit of tens of millions. There are also sellers who made money in 2022 and have already prepared goods for Amazon in 2023, hoping to have a new start in 2023 and set new performance records.

Many workers have also expressed new expectations for 2023↓

Senior Operations : In 2023, I just hope that companies working for Amazon will raise their recruitment thresholds and stop recruiting elementary school students, as they are really difficult to train.

Operation : I hope the boss can be more generous and stop deducting my base salary and scolding me.

Operations : My boss, please stop throwing other tasks at me. I have my own work to do.

Seller : It is already so difficult to do business on Amazon. I hope I can become calmer in 2023 and do less things that will cause internal friction.

Seller : Those weirdos who maliciously follow me, please stop attacking me and stay away from me, okay?

Different people have different expectations. So, fellow workers, what are your expectations for 2023? What choices will you make?

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