Amazon has communicated to its employees that it intends to further reduce its workforce, with more than 9,000 layoffs in the coming weeks. Thus they are added to 18 thousand layoffs already announced at the beginning of the year.
Amazon announces new layoffs, another 9,000 jobs cut
The decision was announced by a letter sent by CEO Andy Jassy to his collaborators: “I am writing to inform you that we have decided to eliminate another 9,000 positions in the near term. This is a difficult choice but one that we believe is in the company’s long-term interest.”
This operation represents the largest restructuring in Amazon’s history and confirms the serious crisis that the technology sector is experiencing, especially the one linked to eCommerce.
The first cuts, which had already started at the end of 2022, would have had to concern about 10,000 workers. The main focus was on Amazon’s retail division and HR functions such as recruiting.
However, with the worsening economic situation, Bezos’ company saw fit to review the cuts. And with today’s announcement, the total layoffs exceed 27,000 employees.
This number represents iLargest layoff ever by a big tech firm in the current economic environment. But you also have to consider that Amazon has a much larger workforce than other Silicon Valley firms. At the end of September 2022, it had more than 1.5 million workers.
Since 2022, data on layoffs in tech firms have reached around 300,000 employees, according to Layoffs.fyi, a site that tracks job cuts in the industry.