Amazon CEO Announces Elimination of Over 18,000 Employees from its Workforce

Written by: Arjita Gupta

Edited by: Krutarth

Last Updated: February 14, 2023

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced on Wednesday that they will be laying off over 18,000 employees from their workforce because of an uncertain economy. The decision is to mitigate the financial burden that came with rapid hiring in the period of the initial pandemic time when the demand for online deliveries suddenly saw a boom. To meet the explosion of service requirements, the leading e-commerce company intensively hired, doubling its global staff during the start of 2020 and 2022.

The Amazon group globally had 1.54 million employees by the end of September. The figures do not cite recruited seasonal workers during the boosted activity, especially in the holiday season. The company’s leadership is aware that the elimination is hard on people and they do not take such calls lightly, until necessary. In a statement to his staff, the CEO said that between the reductions that the company had done in November and the news that was shared today, over 18,000 job roles will be affected.

In November, Amazon announced that about 10,000 job roles will see a farewell from the family of this online giant retailer. The affected workers will receive intimation starting from 18 January 2023. Some of the layoffs will take place in Europe. Jassy said that they had to make the sudden announcement as one of their teammates had leaked the details externally. He also said Amazon had encountered difficult economic conditions in the past and weather uncertainty, and it will continue to do so.

However, they are taking measures to support those impacted by providing packages that come with transitional health insurance benefits, separation payments, and external job placement assistance. Positive reactions have sprung from Amazon investors for the latest efforts of belt-tightening taken, indicating that it will upscale the profits for the company. When the plan was announced, Amazon shares raised by 2% in late trading.

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