Amazon is the latest tech giant to announce major layoffs, with 18,000 job cuts, around 6% of its global workforce.
The firm hasn’t revealed exactly where the job losses will fall geographically, but they will come from its “stores division” as well as “people, experience and technology.”
Amazon has recently invested heavily in the North of England, with thousands of people working at its fulfilment centres. Manchester is also the base of its first corporate office outside London.
CEO Andy Jassy told staff today that the decision was down to the “uncertain economy.”
“As I shared back in November, as part of our annual planning process for 2023, leaders across the company have been working with their teams and looking at their workforce levels, investments they want to make in the future, and prioritizing what matters most to customers and the long-term health of our businesses.
“This year’s review has been more difficult given the uncertain economy and that we’ve hired rapidly over the last several years.”
He added:
“We typically wait to communicate about these outcomes until we can speak with the people who are directly impacted. However, because one of our teammates leaked this information externally, we decided it was better to share this news earlier so you can hear the details directly from me.
“We intend on communicating with impacted employees (or where applicable in Europe, with employee representative bodies) starting on January 18.”
It becomes the latest tech firm to announce job cuts, following Salesforce’s decision to lay-off 8k staff (10% of its workforce) earlier this week. In November, Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg stated that it would be cutting 11,000 jobs while Twitter is set to cut about half of its staff.
