Amazon.com Inc’s layoffs will now total more than 18,000 as part of a previously publicized employee reduction, Chief Executive Andy Jassy announced in a public staff message on Wednesday.
The layoff choices, which Amazon will announce on January 18, would mostly affect the company’s e-commerce and human resources departments.
The job cuts represent 6 percent of Amazon’s nearly 300,000-person corporate staff and mark a sharp flip for a company that just quadrupled its base pay threshold in order to contend more vigorously for talent.
Amazon employs about 1.5 million people, including warehouse employees, making it the United States (US)’s second-largest private employer behind Walmart Inc.
In the message, Jassy claimed that this year’s annual planning has been more challenging given the unpredictable economy and the increased hiring over the previous several years.
Amazon has braced for slower growth as rising inflation has prompted both businesses and individuals to cut back on spending, and its stock price has more than halved in the last year.
Amazon’s fortunes have taken a sharp turn for the worse. It evolved from a service that was deemed necessary during the epidemic for delivering items to locked-down households to one that was overbuilt compared to overall demand.
Jassy’s note came after the Wall Street Journal reported that the layoffs would total more than 17,000 people. He said that due to a leak, Amazon opted to reveal the news before alerting concerned employees.
Amazon must still submit some legal notices regarding large layoffs, and it intends to pay severance. According to Jassy, Amazon has weathered unpredictable and harsh economies in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
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