Amazon confirmed on Thursday that it is laying off staff, after days of rumors that the e-commerce behemoth would become the latest tech giant to unleash a large-scale redundancy plan amid a souring economic environment.
\n\u201cThe economy remains in a challenging spot and we\u2019ve hired rapidly the last several years,\u201d wrote chief executive Andy Jassy in an internal memo published on the Amazon website.
\nUS media have previously reported that the platform and its various branches will lay off about 10,000 employees.
\nJassy did not confirm the figure, but he said that the process had begun and would continue early next year.
\nThe first teams affected were those dealing with the brand\u2019s electronic devices such as Kindle e-readers. Physical shops will also be impacted.
\n\u201cThere will be more role reductions as leaders continue to make adjustments,\u201d he wrote.
\n\u201cThose decisions will be shared with impacted employees and organisations early in 2023. We haven\u2019t concluded yet exactly how many other roles will be impacted.\u201d
\nJassey said that in the roughly 18 months he has been CEO, \u201cwithout a doubt, this is the most difficult decision we\u2019ve made.\u201d He continued: \u201cIt\u2019s not lost on me or any of the leaders who make these decisions that these aren\u2019t just roles we\u2019re eliminating, but rather, people with emotions, ambitions, and responsibilities whose lives will be impacted.\u201d
\nA reduction of 10,000 employees would represent a little less than one per cent of the group\u2019s total payroll, which had 1.54 million employees worldwide at the end of September, not counting seasonal workers who are recruited during periods of increased activity like the Christmas holidays.
\nThe layoffs follow an aggressive hiring spree.
\nWith business booming due to the coronavirus pandemic as cooped up people turned in earnest to online shopping, Amazon doubled its workforce from the first quarter of 2020 to 1.62m employees two years later.
\nBut with the economy souring, two weeks ago Amazon announced a hiring freeze and its workforce has already decreased compared to the beginning of the year.
\nThe US retail giant saw its net profit fall by 9pc year-on-year in the third quarter.
\nAnd for the current quarter, the crucial holiday season, the group expects growth to be anemic by its standards, between two and 8pc year-on-year.
\nMany technology companies that had been hiring heavily during the pandemic have recently announced job cuts, including Meta, Twitter, Stripe and Lyft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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