The year 2022 was the month that The New York Times published an article that said Amazon had plans to eliminate around 10,000 employees. However, the number has risen.
Amazon’s ongoing layoffs will impact about 18,000 workers in accordance with an announcement from the CEO Andy Jassy, which says that the “majority” of the jobs to be eliminated will be within Amazon Stores and People, Experience, and Technology organizations.
It’s a lot more than what was previously thought during November. The New York Times reported that the company had set out to cut its staff by about 10,000. The company in September of 2022 reported that it had 1.5 million employees.
The announcement of the increased reductions in layoffs was initially announced in The Wall Street Journal, who reported that they’d impact “over 17,000 employees.” Jassy’s email states that company officials will “typically delay releasing information about the outcome until we have the opportunity to meet with those who will be directly affected,” however, it shared the news as “one one of our colleagues shared this information with the outside world.” The company also notes the affected workers should have started discovering the news the news on January 18th.
In the last few months, Amazon has admitted to merging “some groups and programmes” within its services and hardware division according to SVP Dave Limp put it in an email from November. But, the company has not officially confirmed the initial number. The CEO Andy Jassy did tell workers that there will be “more job cuts as leaders make adjustments” in 2023. so far, the company’s not made clear the exact number of positions affected.
The company announced its earnings in October. Amazon declared that they had seen double-digit sales growth because of it’s “biggest Prime Day event ever” in July. Amazon also told the investors “steady improvements” towards reducing expenses. The 3rd of January was when it informed the SEC that it had taken the loan of $8 billion, which will be utilized to fund “general corporate goals.” A spokesperson unidentified informed TechCrunch that it had utilized “different methods of financing to help with capital expenses, debt repayments, acquisitions, and other working capital needs” while it navigates an “uncertain macroeconomic landscape.”
The company states that they are “working to help those affected by the issue and will provide packages which include a separation payout as well as transitional health insurance benefits and support for external job placement.”
This makes Amazon’s cuts one of the largest cuts from a tech giant in recent times. In the last couple of months Meta has announced it would be laying off 11,000 employees. Meanwhile, companies such as Intel have also announced that they are planning to cut their workforces in significant amounts over the course of this year. On Wednesday, Salesforce said it would be cutting around 10% of its employees that’s equivalent to around 8000 employees. Meanwhile, Vimeo announced that it was cutting 11 percent of its employees.
