Amazon subleasing warehouses due to easing demand

Amazon is planning to sublease some of its warehouse space now that the pandemic-fueled surge in online shopping, which helped the e-commerce giant rake in soaring profits in the past two years, has eased.

Subleasing allows the company to “relieve the financial obligations associated with an existing building that no longer meets” its needs, Amazon spokesperson Alisa Carroll said.

Carroll didn’t disclose how much space the company plans to sublet. But citing anonymous sources, Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the retailer would sublease at least 10 million square feet of space and could end more of its leases in states including New York, New Jersey and California.

Seattle-based Amazon doubled the size of its operations during the pandemic, adding more warehouses and workers to keep up with demand from homebound consumers who felt more comfortable buying things online.

But as the worst of the pandemic eased, it found itself with too much warehouse space and too many workers.

IMF director says global recession not likely

DAVOS, Switzerland – The managing director of the International Monetary Fund says a global recession isn’t in the cards but “it doesn’t mean it’s out of the question.”

Speaking Monday at the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering, Kristalina Georgieva reminded the audience that the IMF is forecasting 3.6% growth for 2022, which is “a long way to global recession.”

A moderator opened a discussion about the global economy by asking the audience if they thought there was a chance of a recession. Most of the crowd of about 100 put their hands up.

Georgieva says the global outlook was “a little bit like the weather here in Davos – the horizon has darkened.”

She says it’s going to be a “tough year” and that one of the big problems is surging food prices, partly fueled by the Russia-Ukraine war.

Georgieva listed a host of other challenges, including rising interest rates, inflation, the strengthening dollar, a slowdown in China, the climate crisis and a recent “rough spot” for cryptocurrencies.

Video game workers vote to form first labor union

MILWAUKEE – Video game workers at a division of game publisher Activision Blizzard have voted to unionize, creating the first labor union at a large U.S. video game company.

A count of ballots on Monday revealed the results of the election affecting a small group of Wisconsin-based quality assurance testers at Activision Blizzard’s Raven Software, which develops the popular Call of Duty game franchise. The tally was 19-3.

The unionization campaign by employees at Raven’s office in Middleton, Wisconsin, was part of a broader internal shakeup at Activision Blizzard, a Santa Monica, California-based gaming giant with roughly 10,000 employees worldwide.

The game publisher – which Microsoft is in the process of buying for nearly $69 billion – has been under intense public scrutiny since California’s civil rights agency sued it last year over an alleged “frat boy” culture that discriminated against women. It recently settled a separate federal civil rights lawsuit over allegations that management ignored sexual harassment and workplace discrimination against female employees.

Microsoft has said it wouldn’t interfere in any unionization efforts.

From wire reports