Amazon CEO Says Job Cuts Will Run Through Next Year

Workers pack and ship customer orders at an Amazon fulfillment center in Romeoville, Ill., on Aug. 1, 2017. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

After confirming that it has begun terminating employees, Amazon has now revealed that the layoffs will continue into 2023 as well.

On Nov. 16, Dave Limp, Amazon senior vice president of devices and services, announced the job cuts, saying that the company had decided to “consolidate some teams and programs” due to which “some roles will no longer be required.” In a news release on Nov. 18, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy revealed that the company’s annual planning process extends into the New Year, meaning that there will be “more role reductions as leaders continue to make adjustments.”

“Those decisions will be shared with impacted employees and organizations early in 2023. We haven’t concluded yet exactly how many other roles will be impacted, but each leader will communicate to their respective teams when we have the details nailed down.”

Calling the layoffs the “most difficult decision” he has made since becoming the CEO, Jassy said that the company is trying to find new roles for affected employees on other teams within the firm; otherwise, failing that, the employees will be offered packages including separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support.

As of 2021, Amazon employed more than 1.6 million full-time and part-time employees. There were 600,000 people working in the company headquarters in 2020. According to multiple news reports, as many as 10,000 employees might be laid off by Amazon in its current termination drive.

Amazon recently notified Californian authorities that it would fire 260 employees in the state effective Jan. 17, 2023, including those working as software engineers and data scientists.

Poor Performance, Other Layoffs

Amazon had reported two consecutive quarterly losses earlier in the year, much of which was accounted for by its investment in an electric vehicle startup.

Though the firm registered profits in the third quarter, investors are worried about its lackluster projections for the fourth quarter, a period which usually tends to be a good time for retailers thanks to the holiday shopping season.

Earlier this month, Amazon announced that it will pause corporate hiring. The company had previously stopped hiring in its retail division.

In addition to Amazon, other major tech giants have also announced layoffs. On Nov. 4, for example, Twitter owner Elon Musk announced his decision to fire half of the social media’s workforce of 7,500.

Meta, which owns Facebook, announced plans to terminate more than 11,000 people, or 13 percent of its total workforce. Opendoor, Stripe, and Lyft also have announced laying off at least 13 percent of their employees.

According to a recent report by job consulting agency Challenger, Gray & Christmas, tech firms cut 9,587 jobs in October, taking the total tally this year to 28,207. This is 162 percent higher than the year-ago period.

Andrew Challenger, senior vice president at the consulting agency, said that they are starting to see more job cut activity in the fourth quarter, which historically tends to be the period when the bulk of layoffs takes place.

“Many companies are anticipating a downturn, and with a still-tight labor market and the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes, more cuts will be on the way as we enter 2023,” he said.