Shares in Amazon traded lower after hours on Monday after the New York Post reported that the company has frozen hiring in its lucrative web services division.

Amazon Web Services — the highly profitable division that brought in more than $62 billion in revenue in 2021 — has started telling some job candidates that roles they were seeking have been frozen, according to prospective candidates.

The news comes just days after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos warned of a looming recession, saying that “the probabilities in this economy tell you to batten down the hatches.”  -NY Post

This follows an Oct. 4 report by the NY Times that Amazon would stop hiring new corporate employees in its retail and logistics operations - but that AWS would not be affected by the freeze.

Update from a longtime reader:

(Click on image to enlarge)

Some analysts at the time interpreted the reported exemption as evidence that the company would support the profitable division - however a spokesperson confirmed to the Post that the division has stopped hiring people.

(Click on image to enlarge)

"In some areas of AWS we have met our hiring needs, and in others we have thousands of job openings," the spokesperson said, without providing specifics on which areas of AWS have frozen hiring.

"Across Amazon, our many different businesses are at various stages of evolution, and we expect to keep adjusting our hiring strategies in each of these businesses at various junctures."

More By This Author: