Amazon.com Inc. would be about to start a round of layoffs that will end up affecting more than 18,000 employees. It’s the biggest job cut in its history, which it announced earlier this month.
The cuts come at a time when retailer faces slowdown in online sales growth and is preparing for a possible recession that will affect the purchasing power of its customers.
They started last year and initially hit hardest at Amazon’s Devices and Services group, which builds the Alexa digital assistant and Echo smart speakers. The last round, which is scheduled to start on Wednesday, It will mainly affect the retail and human resources division.
Amazon began the deepest downsizing in its history
Although the cuts represent only about 1% of the total workforcewhich includes hundreds of thousands of hourly-paid warehouse and delivery staff, number about 6% of Amazon’s 350,000 corporate employees worldwide.
“Amazon has weathered uncertain and difficult economies in the past, and we will continue to do so,” Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy said earlier this month in a memo to employees. “These changes will help us pursue our long-term opportunities with a structured more solid costs.
The world’s largest online retailer spent much of the past year adjusting to a sharp slowdown in e-commerce growth as shoppers returned to pre-pandemic habits. Amazon postponed warehouse openings and halted hiring at its retail group. He extended the freeze to the company’s corporate staff and then began making cuts.
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Amazon is among several large technology companies that would also cut their staff, como Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corp., Meta Platforms Inc., Qualcomm Inc. y Salesforce Inc.
In her memo, Jassy said the company would provide severance pay, transitional health benefits and job placement to affected workers.
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