9,000 More Layoffs at Amazon

Following a week of upheaval in the banking sector and financial markets, Amazon made waves on Wall Street by announcing another round of layoffs. In a message shared with employees on March 20, CEO Andy Jassy reported that the retail giant plans to axe 9,000 additional positions over the next several weeks.

Most of the affected employees are in the cloud computing, human resources, advertising, and Twitch groups. Twitch is a live-streaming platform that is often used for gaming.

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“This was a difficult decision, but one that we think is best for the company long term,” declared Jassy. He noted that after a broad scale-up in the wake of high demand in the pandemic era, the subsequent scale-down and difficult macroeconomic environment were the main factors in the headcount reduction.

“The overriding tenet of our annual planning this year was to be leaner while doing so in a way that enables us to still invest robustly in the key long-term customer experiences that we believe can meaningfully improve customers’ lives and Amazon as a whole,” Jassy added.

It’s been a tough first quarter for Amazon’s global team. In January, the company terminated 18,000 positions; the company’s February financial report showed that the fourth quarter of the fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 2022 was the least profitable Q4 in its history. Amazon also confirmed that it is hitting the brakes on planned openings of several brick-and-mortar Amazon Fresh locations around the United States.

“Some may ask why we didn’t announce these role reductions with the ones we announced a couple months ago. The short answer is that not all of the teams were done with their analyses in the late fall; and rather than rush through these assessments without the appropriate diligence, we chose to share these decisions as we’ve made them so people had the information as soon as possible,” Jassy explained.

According to the CEO, affected employees will be supported with various packages that include separation payments, transitional healthy benefit and job placement assistance.

Looking ahead amid murky market conditions, Jassy pointed to areas of strength and potential for Amazon. “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,” he said.

Seattle-based Amazon is No. 2 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.