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On Monday, the 20th of March, Amazon announced its decision to lay off another 9,000 employees due to cost-cutting measures amid challenging times. In a message sent to employees, the CEO of the company, Andy Jassy, discussed the tightened situation. Previously, Amazon terminated 18,000 employees in January, and overall, 27,000 people have been laid off due to these measures.
“We intend to eliminate about 9,000 more positions in the next few weeks—mostly in AWS, PXT, Advertising, and Twitch. This was a difficult decision, but one that we think is best for the company in the long term,”
- outlines the company’s CEO
According to Amazon's CEO, the business has hired too many people in recent years, and in these difficult times, it needs to reduce costs and manage resources carefully. In the long run, he believes this move will benefit the company and enable it to allocate resources to more valuable initiatives. The company's CEO has explained that Amazon did not announce all the layoffs at once because different teams within the company had not completed their internal assessments simultaneously. As part of these evaluations, Amazon reordered job priorities, and they did not want to rush this process.
The layoff process is expected to be completed no later than the end of April, and Amazon will support the affected employees. Separation payments, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement assistance will all be included in the support package.
“Given the uncertain economy in which we reside, and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount,”
- comments Andy Jassy regarding the situation
As a result of the current unstable economic climate, other prominent companies such as Meta, Microsoft, and Google have also been forced to deal with financial challenges and lay off workers. Tens of thousands of employees have already been laid off this year by these companies.
“I remain very optimistic about the future and the myriad of opportunities we have, both in our largest businesses, Stores and AWS, and our newer customer experiences and businesses in which we’re investing. To those ultimately impacted by these reductions, I want to thank you for the work you have done on behalf of customers and the company. It’s never easy to say goodbye to our teammates, and you will be missed. To those who will continue with us, I look forward to partnering with you as we make life easier for customers every day and relentlessly inventing to do so,”
- Amazon’s CEO ends the message
