Amazon to cut 18,000 jobs across its business as tech giants suffer

Amazon will cull roles across areas such as stores, operations and people, experience and technology (PXT).  Some of the job losses are expected to be at Amazon’s European business.

The cuts were revealed after rates of online growth generally slowed in the aftermath of the pandemic, consumers reined in spending as the cost of living soared and other tech giants made similar layoffs.

Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy told staff about the job losses in a memo. He said that, as revealed in November last year, Amazon had been reviewing areas such as workforce levels and where it wanted to focus investment, and had already cut jobs.

He wrote today: “I wanted to share the outcome of these further reviews, which is the difficult decision to eliminate additional roles. Between the reductions we made in November and the ones we’re sharing today, we plan to eliminate just over 18,000 roles.

“Several teams are impacted; however, the majority of role eliminations are in our Amazon Stores and PXT organisations.”

He continued that Amazon chiefs were “deeply aware that these role eliminations are difficult for people, and we don’t take these decisions lightly or underestimate how much they might affect the lives of those who are impacted”.

He said departure packages would include “separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits and external job placement support”.

Jassy maintained: “Amazon has weathered uncertain and difficult economies in the past, and we will continue to do so. These changes will help us pursue our long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure.”

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