Amazon to cut 18,000 jobs in another tech layoff

As the world is still musing over the Salesforce news that it is laying of 7000 employees, Amazon announced that it is planning “to eliminate just over 18,000 roles.” This represents about 1.2% of Amazon’s 1.5 million global headcount.

According to CEO, Andy Jassy in a memo to all employees on Thursday, this is an outcome of the recent review that has taken place over the last couple of months.

In his own words,

“As I shared back in November, as part of our annual planning process for 2023, leaders across the company have been working with their teams and looking at their workforce levels, investments they want to make in the future, and prioritizing what matters most to customers and the long-term health of our businesses. This year’s review has been more difficult given the uncertain economy and that we’ve hired rapidly over the last several years. In November, we communicated the hard decision to eliminate a number of positions across our Devices and Books businesses, and also announced a voluntary reduction offer for some employees in our People, Experience, and Technology (PXT) organization. I also shared that we weren’t done with our annual planning process and that I expected there would be more role reductions in early 2023.”

“Today, I wanted to share the outcome of these further reviews, which is the difficult decision to eliminate additional roles. Between the reductions we made in November and the ones we’re sharing today, we plan to eliminate just over 18,000 roles. Several teams are impacted; however, the majority of role eliminations are in our Amazon Stores and PXT organizations.”

The Amazon CEO promised to support those who are affected and that the company would be providing packages that include a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support.

Affected staff will be notified on the 18th of January.

Jassy ended the memo by thanking those affected by the reductions saying “to those impacted by these reductions, I want you to know how grateful I am for your contributions to Amazon, and the work you have done on behalf of customers. You have made a meaningful difference in a lot of customers’ lives. To those who will continue on the journey with us, I look forward to partnering with you to keep making life better and easier for customers every day and relentlessly inventing to do so.

Amazon lost over $1 trillion in market value in 2022 amid a economic downturn. In April 2022, the company reported its first quarterly loss in seven years, losing $3.8 billion. In its last reported quarter (Q3) on October 27, 2022, Amazon posted a net loss of $3 billion for the nine months of its financial year.