Amazon layoffs to hit record 18,000 employees | economy

Amazon’s shrinkage will be larger than originally anticipated. Technology and e-commerce giant founded by Jeff Bezos began laying off thousands of employees last November, but the adjustment will be larger than expected and will reach 18,000 jobs, as announced by the company on Wednesday. This exceeds the number 11,000 layoffs announced by Meta last year, and it was the biggest cut ever by one of the big tech companies.

With 1.5 million employees, Amazon is the second largest company in the US after Walmart. The 17,000 layoffs represent just over 1% of the Seattle-based company’s total employment in Washington, but far exceed the 10,000 jobs initially estimated to be affected by the regulation.

“As part of our 2023 annual planning process, leaders across the company are working with their teams and looking at headcount levels, the investments they want to make going forward, and prioritizing what matters most to customers and the company’s health. This year’s review, the uncertain economy, and in recent years It was more difficult because we were recruiting quickly.” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy begins his message.

“In November, we reported the difficult decision to liquidate some positions in our Devices and Books business, and also announced a voluntary layoff proposal for some employees in our People, Experience and Technology (PXT) organization. We also noted that our annual planning process is not over and further layoffs are expected in early 2023. «Today, I wanted to share the result of these new reviews, which was a difficult decision to remove additional features. Between the discounts we made in November and shared today, we plan to remove just over 18,000 features.» The message was shared with staff and posted by Amazon on its website.

The divisions most affected will be the stores (Amazon Stores) and the PXT divisions, where the group christened the human resources area in this way. The announcement of the layoffs was expedited following the information released by. Wall Street Magazine, Estimated at 17,000, stating that layoffs will be concentrated at the company’s headquarters. “We usually wait to communicate these facts until we can speak directly to the people affected. However, since one of our teammates leaked this information, we decided it would be better to share this news earlier so you can get the details directly from my mouth,” says Jassy.

The company plans to contact affected employees (or organizations representing workers in Europe, if appropriate) from January 18. It has not released a breakdown of those affected by country, but it is predictable that these will be concentrated in its largest market, the United States, where most corporate functions are located. Amazon will offer packages that include severance pay, temporary health insurance benefits, and outside help in finding a job to those affected.

“Amazon has overcome uncertain and challenging economic situations in the past, and we will continue to do so,” says CEO of the company founded by Jeff Bezos.

The wave of layoffs at tech companies created more than 150,000 jobs last year. calculations from the layoffs.fyi website, calculates announcements and news about it. For many tech companies, the pandemic has been a golden age thanks to a shift in consumer habits. The return to normalcy, strategic mistakes, over-hiring and the slowdown in the economy have caused a hangover effect of tens of thousands of layoffs in the industry, despite the strength of the US labor market, where the unemployment rate is close to minimum. last 50 years

The year 2023 did not start on a better footing. Salesforce has joined a wave of layoffs from tech companies. The company approves about 10% of its workforce, This will mean approximately 8,000 layoffs as part of a restructuring plan to cut costs and improve operating margins. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was notified this Wednesday.

In addition to Amazon, companies that announced layoffs last year include: Meta (Facebook), with 11,000 layoffs partly due to losses from his failed bid for the metaverse. Twitter cuts its workforce of 7,500 in half With the arrival of Elon Musk, to which a wave of resignations from hundreds of employees was added later. Social network Snap announces 20% layoff in August More than 1,000 employees of the payroll after slowing growth and multimillion-dollar losses. Connected stationary bike maker Peloton joined Netflix in October with more than 4,000 employees and nearly 500 employees.

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