Amazon plans to lay off 18,000 employees, citing macroeconomic circumstances as a key factor for the decision.
In a blog, CEO Andy Jassy indicates that the company faces macroeconomic difficulty. Jassy explained Amazon recruited too many employees in recent years, causing a disbalance at present. Salesforce cited the same reason for its recent decision to cut 10 percent of all personnel.
Amazon previously disclosed plans to fire 10,000 staffers, which has now been extended to 18,000. These are primarily office workers in Amazon stores and recruitment staff. The number equals just over 1 percent of the giant’s total workforce of 1.5 million employees.
Cost savings
During the pandemic, Amazon expanded its workforce in response to revenue growth. With the pandemic on the decline, people returned to physical stores, forcing the e-commerce giant to cut costs.
Initial cost savings included divesting unprofitable business units, such as physical stores and Amazon Care. Later, a hiring freeze was declared. Layoff rounds followed from November 2022 onwards.
Not alone
Amazon isn’t the only large tech firm to cut staff. Various industry players announced layoff rounds in the past few weeks. Meta, for example, is dropping 13 percent of its workforce (11,000 employees). Salesforce, Lyft and HP announced cuts as well.
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