Amazon set to lay off thousands in Washington state

[Owen Lucas]

You'd be getting rid of what they spend in the economy too so the few percent of the GDP they make would disappear.

Aren't they sending just as much money back home? Exfiltrating USD to other countries isn't great from my understanding. Might as well place larger taxes on this?

 

[JeffKeryk]

@Owen Lucas I suggest the reason Americans do not do that ag work is the cost would be far to high. Americans could not afford to eat because American AG (big business) would be forced to pay the wages and out of business.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Owen Lucas]

@Owen Lucas I suggest Americans do not do that ag work is the cost would be far to high. Americans could not afford to eat.
Just my 2 cents.

That's what the H2-A program is for. There is a lack of farm labor and H2-A solves it. Come here for X time, sleep on the farm in barracks, season is over, get sent back home.

There is a difference between illegals and H2-A workers. We can have the ag workers and veggies without illegal aliens.

I'd be curious to see how many migrants took these low paying jobs when they can get free money from the gov't, healthcare etc.:

https://budget.house.gov/press-rele...egal-immigrants-despite-record-budget-deficit

 

[JeffKeryk]

That's what the H2-A program is for. There is a lack of farm labor and H2-A solves it. Come here for X time, sleep on the farm in barracks, season is over, get sent back home.

There is a difference between illegals and H2-A workers. We can have the ag workers and veggies without illegal aliens.

I'd be curious to see how many migrants took these low paying jobs when they can get free money from the gov't, healthcare etc.:

https://budget.house.gov/press-rele...egal-immigrants-despite-record-budget-deficit

My point exactly. Why don't Americans do AG work? This thread seems to be full of anti-immigrant labor.
I say immigrants make America strong, across the economy. I also say we need to grow talent organically.
CA low cost public education, made even better from Silicon Valley support, has generated some pretty high tax payers.

 

[SC Maintenance]

My point exactly. Why don't Americans do AG work? This thread seems to be full of anti-immigrant labor.

H2A pays about the same as fast food. We wouldn't like the price of strawberries if we needed to pay Americans to do the job. They would - for the right price.

H2B is another one. I lived on a barrier island that hired a lot of H2B (seasonal workers) to work at the resorts. They wouldn't even consider the local kids. They would rather hire kids from overseas they have more control over.

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

Amazon announced today it’s closing all of its Amazon fresh stores the end of January 2026, except in California, which is delayed two months because of California law requiring notice to the workers.

Also note announced today UPS is laying off 30,000 more workers because they are cutting ties to Amazon.
UPS also laid off 48,000 last year

Those are absolutely devastating numbers and one has to wonder how companies can get to a point where they can jettison that number of people? Does it mean they are dumping whole business divisions or they were way bloated with employees to begin with. If they were it sure seems their top management must have a heck of a lot of explaining to do to the board of directors and their top investors. I mean those are staggering numbers to come up with at one time.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Those are absolutely devastating numbers and one has to wonder how companies can get to a point where they can jettison that number of people? Does it mean they are dumping whole business divisions or they were way bloated with employees to begin with. If they were it sure seems their top management must have a heck of a lot of explaining to do to the board of directors and their top investors. I mean those are staggering numbers to come up with at one time.

I have to believe its partially a commercial for AI. The cost savings for AI will be to get rid of people (save their salary). Amazon Web Services is the largest cloud computing company on earth. Hard for them to sell other companies to embrace AI if there not themselves.

When I worked at a huge company they would have these huge RIF's. Of course you couldn't replace people with AI back then so they would just outsource the work to a private contractor - who often hired the old guy that did the job. It cost more but it looked like you saved money somehow

 

[JeffKeryk]

A corporation is like a living thing; it has a life cycle. It always changes, or it perishes. You grow or you go. Amazon C-level management, like all companies, has to make decisions to run the company. They decide, right or wrong, what is good for the company. Amazon is restructuring with the goal of flattening management, increasing efficiency and, of course, reduce operating cost.

And yes, AI is the big one. AI is one of the biggest inflection points in business history, along with the industrial revolution and the Internet. I know there are many who doubt its importance and/or validity, but I highly suggest we all educate ourselves on its impact.

 

[GON]

All I can share is we hired two landscape companies to fix our irrigation system, we paid a premium, and neither company repaired the system. I ended up repairing the system myself in under two hours, including a run to Home Depot for parts.

Wife hired a professional painter for $8k USD to paint some interior rooms. Painter left almost all the hardware off, didn't seal the paint cans so no touch up paint (paint dried), painted over vinyl window trim, I can go on and on.

Wife thought our stove was broken. She called numerous appliance repair companies. She didn't receive a single call back.

Might be the greatest time in US history to start a company. Yes, lots of hard work, lots of sacrifice, but wow surely appears a great time to start and run a company in the US.

 

[GON]

I don't think you really realize what is "poor". Everything but the car is pretty cheap, and only the cell phone with a $30-40/month plan is necessary for modern life.
People working a couple jobs 60+hrs a week to spend half their gross income on a bad apartment, and buy overpriced junk food at the local supermarket, and don't have a reliable car or time, to go to the cheaper grocery store in town, aren't really having a "good time".

1/3 of the US households have less than $50k per income... So after taxes, rent, utility bills, health insurance? They get down to $3-400 per week for food, transportation, clothes... They aren't ordering $150/month tv/internet packages to watch the disney channel on their 87" TV, or getting 4-5% cash back credit cards.

We make a decent amount of money, but even I have a hard time forking over what a semi-reliable car costs these days, and that's with having the space and tools to do most of the maintenance and simple fixes.... And we have no mortgage or car payments.

I grew up in a 550 square foot home. Every adult male on our street worked, and most worked not only a full time job, but also a part time job. None of these men would ever turn down overtime, or an opportunity to make additional money.

 

[Dave Hess]

I grew up in a 550 square foot home. Every adult male on our street worked, and most worked not only a full time job, but also a part time job. None of these men would never turn down overtime, or an opportunity to make additional money.

What city was that ?

 

[JeffKeryk]

All I can share is we hired two landscape companies to fix our irrigation system, we paid a premium, and neither company repaired the system. I ended up repairing the system myself in under two hours, including a run to Home Depot for parts.

Wife hired a professional painter for $8k USD to paint some interior rooms. Painter left almost all the hardware off, didn't seal the paint cans so no touch up paint (paint dried), painted over vinyl window trim, I can go on and on.

Wife thought our stove was broken. She called numerous appliance repair companies. She didn't receive a single call back.

Might be the greatest time in US history to start a company. Yes, lots of hard work, lots of sacrifice, but wow surely appears a great time to start and run a company in the US.

I finally found a guy who did good work and didn't rip me off. Sometimes you get lucky.

 

[alarmguy]

Those are absolutely devastating numbers and one has to wonder how companies can get to a point where they can jettison that number of people? Does it mean they are dumping whole business divisions or they were way bloated with employees to begin with. If they were it sure seems their top management must have a heck of a lot of explaining to do to the board of directors and their top investors. I mean those are staggering numbers to come up with at one time.

I think like any big business they experiment in new ways to make money, the ones where they find out they’re not making money and they cut those workers
UPS does have a worldwide workforce of half million workers
If anything, it would be negligent of them not to get rid of those workers. As someone brought to my attention, they dumped delivering for Amazon because it was not a money maker and they are closing up all Amazon fresh stores which was sort of an experiment I think also.

Companies have to pivot and adapt. I think they refocusing possibly back to online distribution of grocery type products.

Here is a good example. Look at what must’ve been the tens of billions of dollars corporations wasted on developing electric vehicles and having to cancel them for lack of sales.
There is no golden goose companies have to pivot and adapt and try new things if they don’t sooner or later, someone will catch them by surprise and surpass them

 

[SC Maintenance]

I presume Elon Musk, that or Grovers friend somehow got mixed up with Amazon. He's going to be delivering packages to your house soon since he lost his coding job.

The new occupation buzz will soon be "just learn how to weld".

 

[Owen Lucas]

The new occupation buzz will soon be "just learn how to weld".

Yep, the coding bros went from telling coal miners to learn how to code and then now they will have to learn welding or plumbing.

 

[Pew]

Yep, the coding bros went from telling coal miners to learn how to code and then now they will have to learn welding or plumbing.

I don't think anybody in IT would have ever said that though, just some fake hoopla spread around by those "coding boot camps." Lots of people I know in IT is getting into different careers if/when they get laid off.

 

[Owen Lucas]

I don't think anybody in IT would have ever said that though, just some fake hoopla spread around by those "coding boot camps." Lots of people I know in IT is getting into different careers.

I presume they are not going into blue collar trades? Kind of a down-grade from an office job IMHO. I mean one day you're in a desk and the next your unseating a toilet, not many can do that switch. Let me guess, starting their own dev agency or going into teaching?

 

[Pew]

I presume they are not going into blue collar trades? Kind of a down-grade from an office job IMHO. I mean one day you're in a desk and the next your unseating a toilet, not many can do that switch. Let me guess, starting their own dev agency or going into teaching?

Lots of them are pretty handy with their hands and troubleshooting; but a lot aren't also. I know a few looking into trades after IT.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Lots of them are pretty handy with their hands and troubleshooting; but a lot aren't also. I know a few looking into trades after IT.

One of our senior IT guys - who retired like 6 months ago, had been a licensed electrician much earlier in life.

The problem with many of the trades is you only have so many years before your body fails on you - so if you start late in life your that much closer up against it.

 

[oilboy123]

Expedia group is doing layoffs as well. Small potatoes I guess..... but not if it were our job.

Blue collar jobs grind the body, but the robots won't be replacing them anytime soon.