As it fights to slash expenses, Amazon expects to eliminate more than 18,000 workers, the most ever in the history of the company.
The online giant, which employs 1.5 million people worldwide, did not specify which nations will be affected by the job losses but did mention that Europe would be one of them.
The company’s consumer retail business and human resources section will be where the majority of job losses occur.
Boss Andy Jassy blamed the cuts on the “uncertain economy,” claiming that the company has “hired rapidly over several years.”
“We don’t take these decisions lightly or underestimate how much they might affect the lives of those who are impacted,” he said in a memo to staff.
He claimed that one of the company’s employees had leaked the layoffs to the outside world, prompting the early announcement.
“Companies that last a long time go through different phases. They’re not in heavy people expansion mode every year,” he added.
After experiencing a commercial boom during the pandemic, when customers were stranded at home and spent a lot online, Amazon has seen sales decrease.
Read: How to earn money from Amazon with zero investment
Tech companies are being hard impacted by a potent confluence of falling advertising income as a result of corporations cutting costs and consumers cutting down on spending as the cost of living issue bites.
Salesforce, a provider of cloud-based commercial software, and Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, have both recently announced significant layoffs.
Amazon has already disclosed that it will scale back on initiatives like the Echo, also known as Alexa, and delivery robots, which were merely nice-to-haves but didn’t generate any revenue.
According to anecdotal evidence, companies in Silicon Valley often hire and keep brilliant employees on attractive wages even when they are not urgently needed in order to keep them from joining competitors. Big tech no longer has the resources to support this culture.
By January 18, affected Amazon employees should have received notification.
To read our blog on “Mark Zuckerberg confesses he made a mistake as Meta fires 11,000 workers,” click here.
