The Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has officially announced via memo addressed to his company’s staff that they are going to lay off 9,000 more employees in the coming weeks. This month’s Amazon layoff is an extension of the previously announced layoff that started back in November of 2022 which has been extended at the beginning of 2023 and continues now. The layoff from November to January allegedly totals more than 18,000 employees and primarily affected staffers in its retail, devices, recruiting, and human resources groups.
The Reason Behind the Layoff
According to reports, Amazon decided to implement another round of layoffs in an effort to reduce costs. According to Jassy, they considered both the “uncertainty” of the immediate future and the existing health of the economy. The second stage of Amazon’s annual budgeting process, known as “OP2” internally, has just been completed.
Jassy has stated that “the overriding tenet of our annual planning this year was to be leaner while doing so in a way that enables us to still invest robustly in the key long-term customer experiences that we believe can meaningfully improve customers’ lives and Amazon as a whole.”
Jassy stated that the latest round will have a significant influence on Amazon’s cloud computing, human resources, advertising, and Twitch live-streaming businesses in the aforementioned memo addressed to the company’s workforce. Dan Clancy, the CEO of Twitch, stated that 400 people would be laid off as part of Amazon’s most recent round of layoffs due to the streaming industry. The current economic crisis, as well as the fact that Twitch’s user and revenue growth hasn’t “kept pace with our goals,” may possibly factor in the Amazon layoff, he continued.
Amazon Layoff Rounds
It is well known that Amazon has gone through many rounds of layoffs following a hiring frenzy during the Covid epidemic. By the end of 2021, the company’s workforce, which was only around 798,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019, will have increased by 1.6 million. Amazon has already stopped hiring its corporate personnel, terminated a few of its test programs, and reduced the growth of its warehouses.
Jassy is still upbeat about the company’s “biggest companies,” which include retail and Amazon Web Services, as well as smaller, brand-new divisions that continue to merit investment. The company allegedly plans to operate more efficiently this year. As a result of this disclosure, Amazon stock fell 1% on Monday.