Job cuts at Amazon are a sign of tough times to come for tech workers.
The e-commerce behemoth had first announced plans to pare back its workforce in November, citing rapid over-hiring during the pandemic and growing economic uncertainty. In a note published on Amazon’s website today (Jan. 5), CEO Andy Jassy revealed the extent of those cuts: 18,000 roles. That’s far more than the nearly 10,000 jobs, or 3% of its office workforce, Amazon had anticipated eliminating.
The November job cuts largely affected Amazon’s devices and books businesses. At the time, the company had also announced a voluntary reduction offer for some employees in its people, experience, and technology (PXT) organization, adding that more downsizing was on the cards in early 2023. As anticipated, the majority of the roles eliminated this time around are in Amazon Stores and PXT organizations.
“We are working to support those who are affected and are providing packages that include a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support,” Jassy wrote.
Typically, employees are informed before public announcements, but Jassy was forced to make today’s statement shortly after the Wall Street Journal broke the story. The company says it will start communicating with affected employees starting Jan. 18.
The growing pains of job cuts, in the words of Amazon CEO Andy Jassy
“Companies that last a long time go through different phases. They’re not in heavy people expansion mode every year…we sometimes overlook the importance of the critical invention, problem-solving, and simplification that goes into figuring out what matters most to customers (and the business), adjusting where we spend our resources and time and finding a way to do more for customers at a lower cost (passing on savings to customers in the process).”
Are Amazon’s layoffs the largest in tech?
By number, yes. Amazon’s job cuts exceed any of the mass headcount reductions at major companies—Meta (11,000), Snap (1,280) and Twitter (3,750)—in recent months. However, as a percentage of the 300,000 corporate staff, it’s less than 6%. (Overall, Amazon employs 1.54 million people)
Several other tech majors have had to let go of far more. Most recently, Salesforce said yesterday (Jan. 4) that it would lay off 10% of its workforce in the coming weeks as it restructures to cut costs. Twitter laid off half of its staff when billionaire Elon Musk took the reins.
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