Troubles in the US tech sector continue, as e-commerce giant Amazon announced Wednesday night that “a little more than 18,000” jobs will be cut.
The company had announced plans to cut some 10,000 jobs last November, but chief executive officer (CEO) Andy Jassy said the estimated number of layoffs has been revised upwards.
The CEO decided to break the news quickly after it was leaked by an employee. He specified that the employees affected “or their representatives, where necessary, in Europe” will be notified by the company on Jan. 18.
Without specifying the geographical distribution of the layoffs, he said that “the review of the annual planning has been more difficult this year given the economic uncertainty and the fact that we have hired heavily in recent years.”
He added, “Amazon has weathered uncertain and difficult economic times in the past, and we will continue to do so. These changes will help us pursue our long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure. Businesses that last for a long time go through different phases. They’re not in massive staff expansion mode every year.”
Amazon, which is due to announce its annual results on Feb. 1, forecasted growth well below its expectations last November, with operating income for the fourth quarter predicted to be US$0-$4 billion, compared to US$3.5 billion the previous year.
Amazon isn’t the only company having to shrink its workforce. US-based Salesforce also announced on Wednesday its plan to cut just under 8,000 jobs, a reduction of around 10 per cent in its workforce.
It’s the same situation at Meta, the parent company of Facebook, which announced last November that it had to cut 11,000 jobs, about 13 per cent of its workforce.
Snapchat, meanwhile, laid off about 20 per cent of its staff last August – more than 1,200 employees – and Twitter, under the leadership of Elon Musk, recently fired half of its 7,500 employees.
