Amazon completed Phase 2 of its operational plan last week. CEO Andy Jassy announced in a blog post that Amazon plans to cut another 9,000 jobs over the next few weeks, primarily at his AWS, PXT (People and Technology), Ads and Twitch.
As part of the annual planning process, Amazon executives consider what investments they want to make for the future, what is most important to customers and to the long-term health of the company. As technology has grown exponentially, the number of employees required to keep up with demand has increased. With its declining demand and continued economic turmoil, it makes sense for Amazon to cut headcount across the board. This will result in an initial loss of 18,000 jobs and an additional 9,000 slitting operations once this phase is completed.
As to why these cuts weren’t presented at the same time as the others, Jassy said not all teams had completed their analysis by late fall. Instead of rushing through these reviews without considering all possibilities, they decided to share these decisions so that the affected people can be notified as soon as possible. Once these decisions are made, Amazon commits to contacting affected employees as soon as possible. Amazon, as always, has pledged to help those affected by the layoffs, offering packages that include retirement benefits, temporary health insurance benefits, and job assistance.
This is another blow in what has already been a tough year for tech with massive layoffs across Amazon, Google and Microsoft. With Meta announcing its “year of efficiency” with the potential of more layoffs, it doesn’t seem like there is an end in sight for the difficulties in the tech world. We can only wait and see to see how the tech world will continue to navigate the economic turbulence that we find ourselves in.