Amazon extends corporate layoffs to 18,000 jobs

Amazon plans to cut 18,000 business and technology jobs as part of a significant expansion of its cost-cutting plans, company chief executive Andy Jassy said in a message to employees on Wednesday. .

The company previously planned to lay off about 10,000 employees late last year and early this year, The New York Times reported in mid-November. Early layoffs were mostly focused on the company’s device and book organizations. Human resources employees have also received buyout offers to quit.

The new wave of layoffs will begin Jan. 18, Mr. Jassy said, and will focus on human resources as well as the large division Amazon calls Stores. This includes the teams behind Amazon’s main online site, its extensive field operations and warehouses, physical stores and other consumer teams.

The 18,000 total deletions represent approximately 6% of Amazon’s workforce. Late last year, managers in various groups said they had been told to prepare for possible layoffs and that employees were bracing for cuts.

Hourly warehouse workers are not included in layoffs. Amazon has generally cut these jobs due to high attrition.

“These changes will help us pursue our long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure,” Jassy wrote. “However, I’m also optimistic that we’ll be inventive, resourceful and scrappy in this time when we’re not hiring heavily and eliminating certain roles.”

The company has more than doubled its workforce during the pandemic as customers flock to online services. It had about 1.5 million employees at the end of September.

Amazon’s growth, however, slowed to its lowest rate in two decades, and Mr. Jassy was reeling from the company’s over-expansion. Amazon recently warned investors that growth could weaken at its slowest pace since 2001.

Mr Jassy said the sweeping cuts were the result of Amazon’s annual business review, which this year ‘has been more challenging given the uncertain economy and that we have been hiring rapidly over the past few years’ .

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Wednesday that Amazon had extended its planned job cuts.

Amazon is among a number of tech companies that recently announced deep cuts. Salesforce, the enterprise software giant, said on Wednesday it planned to lay off 10% of its workforce, or about 8,000 employees, due to concerns about the economy. Other companies, including Meta and Twitter, have made big layoffs in recent months.