Amazon to lay off a record 18,000 employees amid economic crisis

Online retail giant Amazon has announced its decision to reduce the number of its employees due to the global economic situation. The announcement site, which follows a previous announcement, confirms that the layoffs will affect as many as 18,000 employees of the company.

According to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, full details of the layoffs will appear by January 18. However, he can confirm that the company’s e-commerce and human resources departments will be largely affected.

Amazon laments the economic situation and continues with mass layoffs.

According to the decision, Amazon will cut ties with nearly 6% of its 300,000 employees.

While this type of decision has recently become a trend among global companies, it is particularly surprising for Amazon, which recently doubled its base salary cap for employees.

Citing the reasons for the decision to lay off its staff, Jassy says it’s mainly because of the uncertain economy. He also adds that the company may have been hiring too quickly in recent years.

Interestingly, this isn’t the first time Amazon has shed staff in recent times. The company reportedly began laying off staff last November, starting with staff in its devices division.

At the same time, some wonder why Amazon chose to make such an announcement before officially informing the affected staff. Recall that a previous Wall Street Journal report suggested that Amazon was planning to cut 17,000 jobs. In a response memo to company staff, Jassy wrote:

“We don’t take these decisions lightly and we don’t underestimate how much they can affect the lives of those involved.”

The chief executive explained that the announcement was a response to the leak, which is why the news comes before officially reaching out to those affected.

Nonetheless, Amazon will be sure to file legal notices about the mass layoffs and include plans to pay severance.

Layoffs in the technology industry

For what it’s worth, Amazon is not an isolated case of layoffs. It is an industry-wide trend. According to the tracking site Layoffs.fyi, the tech industry as a whole, has released more than 150,000 workers in total throughout 2022. And just yesterday, Salesforce also revealed plans to cut nearly 10 percent of its workforce. According to the company’s personnel numbers available as of Oct. 31, that will amount to about 8,000 jobs. Amazon’s layoffs have now surpassed those of Meta, which announced 11,000 job cuts in 2022.