Amazon has announced that it will “eliminate” more than 18,000 roles at the company, extending a previously announced round of layoffs that was expected to affect around 10,000 employees.
The announcement is significant in terms of the number of people affected, although it only represents 1.2% of Amazon’s 1.5 million employees worldwide.
In a memo to employees early this morning, CEO Andy Jassy said that in addition to roles affected in its Devices and Books businesses during the previous announcement in November, most of the roles affected by the latest cuts will be in its People, Experience and Technology (PXT) and Amazon Stores businesses.
Layoffs continue
The news comes just a day after Salesforce announced it was laying off around 10% of its workforce, affecting more than 7,000 employees, and continues a trend that has seen countless companies cut their workforces in 2022 to face economic headwinds. Data from the layoffs tracking website Layoffs.fyi suggests that tech companies will cut more than 150,000 positions in 2022.
Today’s announcement was seemingly made earlier than Amazon intended after the Wall Street Journal obtained preliminary details through a leak, which is why Amazon said it has yet to notify those affected — but plans to do so starting on the 18th. January.
“We usually wait to communicate these results until we can talk to the people directly affected,” Jassy wrote. “However, since one of our teammates leaked this information externally, we decided it would be better to share this news early so you can hear the details directly from me.
It also means Amazon has yet to announce what kind of severance benefits it will provide, though Jassy said it will provide “severance, transitional health insurance benefits, and outsourced job placement support.”
