Amazon's advertising business unit puts hiring on hold

Amazon has halted hiring even in profitable divisions such as its advertising business, according to people familiar with the matter, a sign that the world's largest e-commerce company is taking steps to counter slowing overall sales.

The person said the hiring freeze was announced internally on Tuesday. Amazon said it will continue to fill vacancies in its advertising business but will not offer new positions.

“There are still a large number of open positions across Amazon and across all departments,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a recent statement. “We have many businesses at different stages of development and expect to adjust the hiring strategy of each business appropriately at key time points in the future.”

According to people familiar with the matter, Amazon's decision to keep the number of employees in its advertising department at its current level indicates that the e-commerce giant hopes to obtain more net profit by cutting staff costs. It is currently the peak holiday shopping season, and the revenue of the advertising business will also rise accordingly.

Amazon Chief Financial Officer Olsavsky said in a media conference call last week that Amazon will continue to increase investment in its advertising department and cloud computing network service department, while looking for all possible opportunities to cut operating costs.

Data disclosed by Amazon showed that its advertising business generated $9.55 billion in revenue in the third quarter of this year - the advertising business mainly refers to Amazon sellers bidding for advertising space to gain more exposure - a figure that increased by 25% over the same period last year.

Amazon's stock has fallen nearly 13% since Oct. 27, when the company forecast its slowest holiday sales growth ever.

In addition, CEO Andy Jassy has been busy cutting expenses, and Amazon's sales have continued to fall from the highs during the epidemic. It is reported that Amazon has suspended its recruitment plans for the retail department since October and has been cutting and closing projects that are not developing as expected in order to reduce costs.

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