Amazon cuts another 9,000 jobs as economy slows
(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc said on Monday it would cut another 9,000 roles to streamline operations and manage financial uncertainty, marking a fresh round of job cuts that are piling on the tech sector’s woes.
In a significant turnaround for a company that has long promoted job creation, Amazon has eliminated 27,000 jobs in recent months, or 9% of its roughly 300,000 workforce.
The latest cut focuses on Amazon’s highly profitable cloud and advertising divisions, which were once considered untouched until financial concerns prompted corporate customers to review their spending.
Job cuts are also coming to Amazon’s streaming unit, Twitch, after cuts that began in November targeted the company’s devices, online store and human resources organizations. Amazon aims to finalize who it will terminate by April.
The decision follows an almost endless drumbeat of tech layoff news that has seen some of the world’s most valuable companies, including Microsoft Corp and Alphabet Inc, cut ties with the incredible workers they once courted in droves.
Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc said last week it would cut 10,000 jobs this year, kicking off a second round of layoffs for the industry after it eliminated more than 11,000 positions in 2022.
“We’re not surprised,” D.A. Davidson analyst Tom Forte said in a note, citing recession-related concerns behind Amazon’s plans.
In a note posted online by Amazon to staff, its CEO Andy Jassy said the decision was the result of an ongoing analysis of priorities and economic uncertainty.
“Some may ask why we didn’t announce these role reductions along with the ones we announced a couple of months ago,” he wrote. “The short answer is that not all teams were ready with their analysis late in the fall.”
He added: “Because we live in an uncertain economy and the uncertainty of the near future, we have decided to be more streamlined in our costs and staffing levels.”
Amazon said last month that operating profit could continue to decline in the current quarter due to the financial impact of consumers and cloud customers curbing their spending.
In recent months, the company has scaled back or shut down entire services, such as its virtual primary care offering for employers.
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