The technology and retail giant Amazon.com Inc. is planning to fire around 10,000 employees in its technology and corporate departments starting next week, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Earlier reports said that the company would be laying off some of the employees in the Amazon device organization, which makes Alexa gadgets and security cameras. The mass layoffs are also expected to affect its retail division and human resources department. Although this would be the biggest layoff in the company’s history, it would represent only 3% of its corporate workforce and 1% of its global employees.

The upcoming layoffs are attributed to the harsh financial times that people are facing in the world, and on Monday, Amazon shares closed at 2%.

The news that people’s jobs were at stake at Amazon follows significant workforce reductions at other technology companies. Last week, Meta announced that it would let go of over 11,000 employees, about 13% of its workforce. Twitter also made headlines shortly after its new owner, Elon Musk, took over the company, announcing that they would let go of about 3,700 people, amounting to half their global workforce.

By the end of 2019, Amazon had over 700,000 employees, but that number rapidly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic when many people were home and spending a lot of time on the internet. That workforce increased by about 102%, and by December 2021, the company had 1.6 million employees.

The layoffs are happening as we approach the holiday season when the company maximizes its workforce to meet growing demand in preparation for holiday shopping. Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, has been looking for more ways to cut costs since he joined the company in 2021, as they face a low global economy and slowing sales.

Last month, Brian Olsavsky, Amazon’s Chief Financial Officer, told reporters that the company had noticed people had stricter shopping budgets as they struggled with high inflation, which is reaching an all-time high.

Amazon had already announced its plans to halt incremental hiring for its corporate roles for several months. In its cut-costing methods, the company closed its telehealth services and stopped production of a children’s video calling device. In September, Amazon closed most of its US call centers, and only one remained. It also shut down some of its underperforming retail stores across the country, and the company is now canceling, delaying, or closing down some of its warehouse locations.

In recent years, Amazon’s device organization posted annual losses of over $5 billion.

Amazon’s third-quarter earnings announced in October were disappointing, and this spooked some of its investors causing shares to plummet more than 13%. It was the second time in 2022 that Amazon shared disappointing earnings, prompting its shares to sink more than 10%. It was the first time since April 2020 that the company’s market cap fell below $1 trillion.

This year, Amazon shares have lost 41% of their value and have seen a 14% drop in the S&P 500. By Monday afternoon, the shares were $99.67, down by 1.1%. The company is facing its worst year since the 2008 recession.