Alibaba quells retrenchment rumours with announcement to hire 15,000 people

Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding, has announced plans to hire 15,000 people this year amid rumours circulating on Chinese social media that the company planned to cut its workforce by 20%.

In a post on Alibaba’s official Weibo account, Alibaba said that among the 15,000 new hires, more than 3,000 people will be newly-graduated students.

The company further said in the post "Talent movement is what all enterprises have been doing. In Alibaba, talents have been coming in and out, moving normally.”

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The announcement to hire also comes after news that Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing division of Alibaba is laying off about 1,000 workers amounting to 7 per cent of its staff, according to people briefed on the matter as reported by South China Morning Post which is owned by Alibaba.

Alibaba has also split into six units as part of its restructuring plan, that will individually raise funds and explore initial public offerings, the biggest restructuring of the Chinese online commerce leader since its establishment more than two decades ago.

Alibaba said the restructuring would see itself splitting into six units including Cloud Intelligence Group, Taobao Tmall Commerce Group, Local Services Group, Cainiao Smart Logistics, Global Digital Commerce Group and Digital Media and Entertainment Group.

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