Amazon will lay off more than 18,000 workers

New York
CNN
–

Amazon says it plans to lay off more than 18,000 employees as the global economic outlook continues to deteriorate.

Several teams will be affected, including the human resources department and Amazon stores, according to the note From CEO Andy Jassy with staff.

“Companies that last a long time go through different phases. They are not in a people-heavy expansion mode every year,” he said.

Jacy said In November that job cuts at the e-commerce giant will continue into early 2023. Multiple outlets reported in the fall that Amazon planned to cut about 10,000 employees.

Amazon and other tech companies have greatly boosted hiring over the past two years as the pandemic shifted consumer habits toward e-commerce.

Now, many seemingly untouchable tech companies are suffering from their injury, laying off thousands of workers as people return to pre-pandemic habits and macroeconomic conditions worsen.

In his memo, Jassy said Amazon executives recently met to determine how to downsize the company and prioritize “what matters most to customers and the long-term health of our business.”

“This year’s review was even more challenging given the uncertain economy and the fact that we’ve hired quickly over the past several years,” he added.

Jassy said the layoffs will help Amazon pursue long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure. But he called the cuts a “difficult decision,” noting that he “is fully aware that eliminating these roles is difficult for people, and we don’t take these decisions lightly or minimize how much they affect the lives of those affected.”

He added that the company will start notifying affected employees from January 18.

Amazon’s business initially thrived during the pandemic, as consumers relied on online shopping for just about everything.

However, this year the company is facing a shift to personal shopping as well as rising inflation which has sharply reduced consumer demand.

In October, Amazon disappointed Wall Street with its woeful anticipation of this holiday season Missed analysts’ expectations. The company’s stock is down about 50% last year.

Like Jassy, ​​a number of other tech founders and CEOs have since admitted they failed to accurately measure pandemic demand.

Facebook parent Meta recently announced 11,000 job cuts, The largest in the company’s history. Twitter also announced extensive job cuts after Elon Musk bought the company for $44 billion.

Salesforce said this week It will cut 10% of its employees.