Amazon announces layoffs, says some roles will not be required

E-commerce giant Amazon on Wednesday officially announced handing over pink slips to its employees across its Alexa and cloud gaming divisions. The company, however, has not confirmed the numbers of sacked employees.

The development comes two days after reports emerged that the online retailer is planning to slash 10,000 jobs or 3% of its corporate workforce or less than 1% of its global workforce. This is touted to be the largest layoff in the e-commerce giant’s corporate history. As of December 31, 2021, the company had more than 1.5 million employees globally.

Confirming the news, Dave Limp, senior vice president, devices and services at Amazon, said in a blog post that as the company plans to trim its workforce, some roles will not be required. He wrote, “We continue to face an unusual and uncertain macroeconomic environment. In light of this, we’ve been working over the last few months to further prioritize what matters most to our customers and the business. After a deep set of reviews, we recently decided to consolidate some teams and programs. One of the consequences of these decisions is that some roles will no longer be required.” 

“It pains me to have to deliver this news as we know we will lose talented Amazonians from the Devices & Services org as a result. I am incredibly proud of the team we have built and to see even one valued team member leave is never an outcome any of us want,” he added. 

However, the e-commerce giant said it will provide full support to the impacted employees. “In cases where employees cannot find a new role within the company, we will support the transition with a package that includes a separation payment, transitional benefits, and external job placement support,” the company said. 

Affected Amazon employees who are staying in the US on H-1B visas have taken to LinkedIn.

Raj Kansagra, a laid-off software development engineer at Amazon, wrote in a LinkedIn post, “Today, I found out that I've been laid off. I'm joining many others who are experiencing the feelings that come with losing your dream job. I was with Amazon for 6 years. I'm reaching out to my network for positions in Backend Software Engineering (Product/Infra). I have 8+ years of experience, starting my career at Symantec and then becoming part of Amazon. I'm on an H1-B visa so time is of the essence to find something new.”

Notably, the layoffs are also likely to have an impact on the company’s India team which has 10,000 employees. India is amongst the most lucrative markets of the e-commerce giant with more than 100 million users. According to reports, the corporate layoffs will have an impact on hundreds of jobs in the country. 

Earlier this month, the e-commerce giant also announced a hiring freeze across some divisions in the company for the next few months. The company said, “In general, depending on the business or area of the company, we will hire backfills to replace employees who move on to new opportunities, and there are some targeted places where we will continue to hire people incrementally.”

Amidst the turbulent macroeconomic trends and rise in interest rates, several big technology companies have announced massive layoffs and hiring freeze. Last week, the social media company Meta sacked 11,000 employees or 13% of its workforce. Prior to this, social media platform Twitter, which was recently acquired by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, sacked 50% of its workforce. In October, software major Microsoft fired as many as 1,000 employees, or 1% of its workforce, in the third round of downsizing. Snap, the parent company of social media platform Snapchat, sacked 20% of its workforce to restructure its business.