Bigtech Layoffs: Amazon to Fire 18,000 Plus Employees

While everyone thought that the layoff season was quiet, big tech Amazon broke the silence again by announcing that it plans to cut 18,000 jobs instead of 10,000, which it said in November 2022, to curb costs. This would be the highest number of layoffs any tech corporation has carried out in the past couple of months. 

Numerous employees in Amazon’s Devices and Books businesses, as well as some staff members in the People, Experience, and Technology (PXT) division, for whom Amazon had previously announced a voluntary reduction offer, will be impacted by the job losses. The cuts are expected to affect roughly 3% of its corporate employees. However, the layoffs will be from several sectors, mostly Amazon Stores and PXT organizations.

Commenting on job losses, chief executive Andy Jassy wrote in a blog post, “We are working to support those who are affected and are providing packages that include a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support”

The e-commerce giant hired thousands of employees extensively during the Covid-19 pandemic as online shopping boomed during that period. But with Covid lessening, customers started returning to offline stores, leading to falling demand. The company is shredding jobs to decrease expenditure. 

Read: Bigtech Layoffs- Cisco to Cut 4000 Plus Jobs

The Global Layoff Spirit Still Going Strong

Following the global recession, major tech companies like Meta, Lyft, HP, Twitter, Salesforce, and Cisco fired thousands of employees in 2022. The cutbacks have also affected Netflix and Adobe.

Cisco laid off 5% of its workforce, and Salesforce plans to lay off 10% of its workforce. Twitter gave up on 7,500 jobs worldwide, leaving only 20 or so staff working in India, while Meta fired 11,000 workers.