Amazon cuts costs by firing 18,000 employees

• Amazon will lay off more than 18,000 workers, a record.
• Andy Jassy highlighted the “uncertain economy” as the reason for the layoffs.
• Europe will be affected, although the firm did not name which countries.

To combat rising costs, Amazon plans to lay off more than 18,000 workers, the highest number in the company’s history.

The online giant, which employs 1.5 million people worldwide, did not specify which nations will be affected by the job losses but did say they would include Europe.

Its consumer retail business and human resources division will be where the majority of job losses occur.

Boss Andy Jassy cited the “uncertain economy” for the cuts, saying it had “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 said the announcement had been brought forward due to one of the firm’s employees leaking the cuts externally.

“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.

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.

Both Salesforce, a provider of cloud-based commercial software, and Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, have lately 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 acquire and retain exceptional employees at appealing pay even when they are not urgently needed in order to prevent them from joining competitors.

The major IT industry can no longer afford to support this culture. By January 18, Amazon employees who will be affected by the reductions should know.

The action follows the IT juggernaut’s announcement last year that it will reduce its staff without specifying the number of positions that would be eliminated.

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.

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