Amazon on Wednesday announced that it will lay off over 18,000 jobs from its workforce citing an "uncertain economy" and "over hiring" in past years. The company is set to shed 6 per cent of its workforce, increasing the initially planned figures.
According to reports, the majority of the cuts would be in Amazon Stores operations and its People, Experience and Technology team.
Amazon's chief executive Andy Jassy in a statement said that reviewing Amazon's business "has been more difficult given the uncertain economy and that we've hired rapidly over the last several years."
"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," Amazon's chief executive Andy Jessy said, reported BBC.
In November last year, Amazon said that in order to reduce expenses, they will be laying off some of its staff but a figure was not revealed by the tech giant.
As there was a leak in the tech giant's plan for further layoffs, Amazon's CEO has come out with a formal announcement before they sent the official emails to the staff.
According to reports, the firm had introduced a hiring freeze and its expansions have also been halted.
It has also taken steps to shut down some parts of its business, cancelling projects such as personal delivery robots.
"Companies that last a long time go through different phases. They are not in heavy people expansion mode every year," Jassy had said in the statement.
Amazon has already announced that it's cutting back on projects like the Echo (Alexa) and delivery robots-which were not really making money for the company.
The tech industry shed more than 1,50,000 workers in 2022, according to tracking site Layoffs.fyi, a number that's continuing to grow, reported Reuters.
Also, Salesforce Inc said on Wednesday that it will be laying off 10 per cent of its staff, around 8,000 staff, by October.
Wide layoffs
Last year, the global technology industry witnessed several layoffs. Facebook-owned Meta announced that it would cut 13 per cent of its workforce in November.
In Twitter too, mass layoffs took place, where half of its staff lost jobs after Musk took over.
As early as November, Amazon had started laying off its staff.
