Last Update: January 05, 2023, 09:02 AM IST
Amazon announced 10,000 layoffs in November.
Amazon has more than 1.5 million employees, including warehouse workers, making it the second largest private employer in the US after Walmart Inc.
Amazon.com Inc’s layoffs will now increase to more than 18,000 roles as part of previously disclosed workforce reductions, Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy said in a public employee note on Wednesday.
He said the layoff decisions, which Amazon will begin on January 18, will impact the company’s e-commerce and human-resource organizations to a large extent.
The cuts amount to 6% of Amazon’s roughly 300,000-person corporate workforce and represent a sharp turn for the retailer that recently doubled its base salary range to compete more aggressively for talent. .
Amazon has more than 1.5 million employees, including warehouse workers, making it the second largest private employer in the US after Walmart Inc.
Its stock rose 2% in after-hours trading.
Jesse said in the note that annual planning “has become more difficult given the uncertain economy and the rapid hiring we’ve seen over the past several years.”
Amazon braced for potentially slower growth as rising inflation encourages businesses and consumers to cut spending has sent its share price halving over the past year.
The company began letting go of employees from its devices division in November, a source told Reuters at the time that it was targeting about 10,000 cuts.
According to tracking site Layoffs.fyi, the tech industry is set to lay off more than 150,000 workers in 2022, a number that continues to grow. Salesforce Inc said on Wednesday it planned to lay off about 10% of its workforce, which numbered about 8,000, by October 31.
Amazon has had a reversal of fortunes. It changed from a business considered essential during the pandemic to a home delivery company that manufactured more than it needed to meet demand. Its layoffs now exceed the 11,000 cutbacks announced last year by Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc.
Jesse’s note followed a report from the Wall Street Journal that the reduction would amount to more than 17,000 jobs. He added that Amazon chose to disclose the news before notifying employees affected by the leak.
Amazon still has to file some legal notices about the mass layoffs, and it plans to pay severance.
“Amazon has weathered uncertain and difficult economies in the past, and we will continue to do so,” Jesse said.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)