Amazon Announces Layoffs of 18,000 Employees…Notification to Employees to be Fired to Begin in Two Weeks

Last Updated on 01/06/2023 by てんしょく飯

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company will begin notifying affected employees on January 18.

Amazon announced plans to lay off 18,000 employees.

Thousands of employees will be placed in limbo for two weeks.

Thousands of Amazon employees will be placed in limbo for two weeks until it is known whether they will be laid off.

In a memo to employees on January 4, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced 18,000 layoffs, the largest in the company’s history, citing “uncertain economic conditions.”

CEO Jassy stated in the memo that the news of the layoffs was made public because of a leak and that he planned to notify affected employees beginning January 18.

‘We typically wait to make an announcement until we are able to notify those affected directly. However, since one of my teammates leaked this information to the outside world, we decided it would be best to share this news early and discuss the details directly from me.”

In the memo, CEO Jaci said most of the layoffs will be in the company’s Amazon Stores and People Experience and Technology Solutions division, which is involved in human resources. According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the layoffs will affect about 5% of Amazon’s workforce.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company would not comment beyond this memo.

In November 2022, the New York Times (NYT) reported that Amazon was planning to lay off 10,000 employees, but the number of cuts appears to be even larger than that.

In recent months, a wave of layoffs has hit major U.S. companies. Workers in the high-tech industry have been particularly affected, with large companies such as Twitter, Meta, and Netflix cutting jobs