Amazon CEO Andy Jassy confirms to lay off 18,000 employees

San Francisco, Jan 5

Amazon on Thursday confirmed it is laying off around 18,000 employees and several teams will be impacted, especially Amazon Stores along with People, Experience and Technology (PXT) organisations.

The Amazon CEO said in a statement that they were not done with the annual planning process as earlier mentioned, and "I expected there would be more role reductions in early 2023".

"We typically wait to communicate about these outcomes until we can speak with the people who are directly impacted. However, because one of our teammates leaked this information externally, we decided it was better to share this news earlier so you can hear the details directly from me," said Jassy.

"We intend on communicating with impacted employees (or where applicable in Europe, with employee representative bodies) starting on January 18," he added.

In November, reports surfaced that the e-commerce behemoth was aiming to cut its workforce by around 10,000.A

In September 2022, the company said it had around 1.5 million employees in total.

Amazon earlier admitted it was consolidating "some teams and programmes" in its hardware and services division, and Jassy had told workers that there would be "more role reductions as leaders continue to make adjustments" in 2023.

This makes Amazon's reduction one of the largest from a tech giant yet.

Meta last year announced that it was laying off around 11,000 employees, while chip-maker Intel announced that they're planning to make significant cuts throughout the year.

Google is also planning to lay off a significant number of employees in early 2023.

Jassy said that Amazon has weathered uncertain and difficult economies in the past, and will continue to do so.

"These changes will help us pursue our long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure; however, I'm also optimistic that we'll be inventive, resourceful, and scrappy in this time when we're not hiring expansively and eliminating some roles," said the Amazon CEO.

He said that the company is working to support those who are affected and are providing packages that include a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support.