After confirming that it has begun terminating employees, Amazon has now revealed that the layoffs will continue into 2023 as well.
“Those decisions will be shared with impacted employees and organizations early in 2023. We haven’t concluded yet exactly how many other roles will be impacted, but each leader will communicate to their respective teams when we have the details nailed down.”
Calling the layoffs the “most difficult decision” he has made since becoming the CEO, Jassy said that the company is trying to find new roles for affected employees on other teams within the firm; otherwise, failing that, the employees will be offered packages including separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support.
As of 2021, Amazon employed more than 1.6 million full-time and part-time employees. There were 600,000 people working in the company headquarters in 2020. According to multiple news reports, as many as 10,000 employees might be laid off by Amazon in its current termination drive.
Poor Performance, Other Layoffs
Amazon had reported two consecutive quarterly losses earlier in the year, much of which was accounted for by its investment in an electric vehicle startup.Though the firm registered profits in the third quarter, investors are worried about its lackluster projections for the fourth quarter, a period which usually tends to be a good time for retailers thanks to the holiday shopping season.
Earlier this month, Amazon announced that it will pause corporate hiring. The company had previously stopped hiring in its retail division.
In addition to Amazon, other major tech giants have also announced layoffs. On Nov. 4, for example, Twitter owner Elon Musk announced his decision to fire half of the social media’s workforce of 7,500.
Meta, which owns Facebook, announced plans to terminate more than 11,000 people, or 13 percent of its total workforce. Opendoor, Stripe, and Lyft also have announced laying off at least 13 percent of their employees.
Andrew Challenger, senior vice president at the consulting agency, said that they are starting to see more job cut activity in the fourth quarter, which historically tends to be the period when the bulk of layoffs takes place.
“Many companies are anticipating a downturn, and with a still-tight labor market and the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes, more cuts will be on the way as we enter 2023,” he said.