Amazon to lay off more than 18,000 workers to cut costs

• Amazon is laying off 18,000 workers — the biggest in the company’s history.
• CEO Andy Jassy said the layoffs are due to “the uncertain economy” and rapid hiring.
• Amazon’s initial plan late last year was to lay off 10,000 workers.

Amazon is planning to lay off the largest number of workers in the company’s history — 18,000 workers.

CEO Andy Jassy sent a memo to Amazon staff on Wednesday, saying the e-commerce company would terminate 18,000 jobs. Most of the layoffs will be from the company’s Amazon Stores and People Experience and Technology Solutions divisions. 

“This year’s review has been more difficult given the uncertain economy and that we’ve hired rapidly over the last several years,” Jassy wrote. 

Amazon planned to lay off 10,000 workers, or less than 3% of the company’s corporate workforce, the New York Times reported late last year. However, that number has since grown, and the company will make the rest of the cuts in the coming weeks, according to The Wall Street Journal.

It is the largest group of layoffs at a major technology company in the past year, according to the Journal, as the industry faces economic uncertainty.

Amazon started its current round of layoffs in November after Jassy announced that Amazon would eliminate roles in the company’s Devices and Books businesses and offer voluntary exit offers for some staff in HR.

The company will communicate the layoffs starting Jan. 18.

Amazon, America’s second-largest private employer after Walmart, has about 1.5 million employees and most of them work in warehouses. The layoffs have so far been concentrated in Amazon’s corporate groups.  

Late last year, a wave of layoffs hit the tech industry with giants like Twitter, Meta, and Netflix all cutting thousands of workers. 

The trend has not yet shown signs of slowing down this new year as salesforce announced a 10% workforce reduction on Wednesday. 

Soaring inflation forced businesses and consumers to cut back spending, and Amazon’s share price has halved in the past year.

Source: Reuters