Amazon to Layoff Additional 9,000 Employees Amidst Uncertain Economy
According to a memo addressed to Amazon employees by CEO Andy Jassy on Monday, the company will be reducing its workforce by an additional 9,000 individuals. This reduction will impact employees in various roles, including those in AWS, Twitch, advertising, and human resources.
Jassy attributes this decision to the current "uncertain economy" and highlights the company's commitment to being more streamlined in its costs and headcount. It is worth noting that Amazon had previously laid off a total of 18,000 employees across various departments, including hardware and services, human resources, and retail teams, in late 2022 and January of this year.
Jassy emphasizes in the memo that the primary guiding principle of this year's annual planning is to maintain a lean approach while simultaneously enabling the company to make significant investments in critical long-term customer experiences that have the potential to significantly enhance customers' lives and the overall Amazon ecosystem.
Furthermore, this announcement comes shortly after the resignation of Twitch CEO, Emmett Shear, although it is uncertain whether his departure was related to the job cuts since he will continue to serve the company in an advisory capacity. As per CEO Dan Clancy's blog post, the reduction in the workforce impacted approximately 400 individuals. As Twitch undergoes further changes, recent modifications to the platform's revenue-sharing structure have left certain individuals feeling dissatisfied. Additionally, some of the platform's most popular streamers have migrated to competing game-streaming platforms such as YouTube.
According to Clancy's statement, similar to numerous other businesses, Twitch's operations have been affected by the current macroeconomic climate, resulting in slower-than-anticipated revenue and user growth. In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of the company, it has been necessary to make the challenging decision to reduce the size of the workforce. When requested for further information, Twitch spokesperson Samantha Faught declined to provide additional comments and directed our attention to Clancy's blog post.
Jassy clarifies that the company did not announce all of the layoffs at the same time due to the fact that certain teams had not concluded their internal evaluations at the same time. These assessments could result in job reprioritization, which the company did not want to hasten. Jassy explains that they opted to disclose these decisions as they were made to ensure that individuals received the information as quickly as possible.
As per the memo, the affected teams have yet to finalize their decisions on which employees will be impacted by the workforce reduction. Amazon aims to conclude these evaluations by mid to late April, following which impacted individuals will be notified. Those impacted by the layoffs will be provided with severance pay, transitional health insurance, and external job placement assistance.
During the fourth quarter of 2022, Amazon experienced its worst Q4 performance to date, with the company reporting a net loss of $2.7 billion for the entire year, marking its first net loss since 2014. To address these challenges, Amazon has implemented a series of cost-cutting measures, such as the suspension of its second headquarters construction in Arlington, Virginia, the closure of certain physical Go stores, and the pause in Fresh store expansion. The e-commerce behemoth is not alone in navigating a turbulent economy as other prominent corporations, including Meta, Microsoft, and Google, have also implemented layoffs, impacting tens of thousands of employees this year.
Jassy expresses his enduring optimism about the future and the vast array of opportunities available to Amazon, including their flagship businesses, Stores and AWS, as well as the newer customer experiences and enterprises in which they are investing.
Boy, with Amazon laying off 27,000 people, plus cancelling their planned construction in Arlington. Sure am glad the Virginia General Assembly gave them $1.1 billion for "economic development" with only 8 minutes of debate.
Bang up job, guys. Well done.https://t.co/UmG4Ayq8IM
— Lee ? Carter (@carterforva) March 20, 2023
