Lately, more and more tech giants such as Twitter, Microsoft, Meta, and Google are announcing that they will downsize. Now Amazon has joined that list. They told the news on their blog on Wednesday. Rumors had been circulating for days that the company would resort to such a move.
“We notified employees affected by the layoffs yesterday and will continue to work closely with each employee to provide support, including assistance in finding a new job,” Dave Limp, Amazon’s senior vice president of devices and services, said in a statement. “Where employees cannot find a new role with the company, we will support their transition with a package of services that includes separation pay, transition benefits, and employment assistance.”
Amazon did not say precisely how many employees it plans to lay off, and the company declined to comment further. But The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported that the cuts would affect about 10,000 corporate employees – not warehouse workers – during the busiest time of the year. This could be the largest layoff in Amazon’s history.
Limp also said that Amazon first reported financial problems in July at the company’s shareholder meeting. “After an in-depth analysis, we recently decided to consolidate some teams and programs,” Dave Limp said.
In a statement, however, Amazon cited “the current macroeconomic situation (as well as several years of rapid hiring).” All that is clear so far is that the cuts affect corporate and technical staff, not operations staff.
This all comes from the fact that Amazon’s third-quarter earnings improved from the previous quarter of 2022, with overall profits below expectations. As a result, Amazon was cutting staff in a number of areas even before this week’s layoffs.
In addition, initiatives such as robot home delivery, the company closing Amazon Care, a telemedicine and care service, and Fabric.com, a longtime online fabric retailer, have all been softened in the past few months. The Times says the company cut about 80,000 employees between April and September. Amazon imposed a hiring freeze on small teams in September, and a company-wide hiring freeze was set earlier this month.
