Amazon confirmed on Wednesday that layoffs had begun at the company, two days after several retail outlets reported that the e-commerce giant planned to lay off around 10,000 employees this week.
The initial cuts at Amazon will affect roles on the devices and services team, according to a memo shared publicly by Dave Limp, senior vice president of devices and services at Amazon.
“After an in-depth set of reviews, we recently decided to consolidate some teams and programs. One of the consequences of these decisions is that some functions will no longer be needed,” said Limp.
“We notified affected employees yesterday and will continue to work closely with each individual to provide support, including helping to find new roles.”
Limp did not specify how many employees were cut.
Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel told CNN Business in a statement that the company reviews all of its businesses as part of an annual operational review process.
“As we go through this, given the current macroeconomic environment (as well as several years of rapid hires), some teams are making adjustments, which in some cases means that certain roles are no longer needed,” added Nantel.
She continued, “We don’t take these decisions lightly and are working to support all employees who may be affected.”
From Tuesday night through Wednesday morning, many laid-off Amazon workers posted publicly on LinkedIn that they were affected by the job cuts and were looking for work.
Some of these posts mentioned being on teams involved with Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa.
Amazon and other tech companies have significantly increased hiring over the past two years as the pandemic has shifted consumers towards e-commerce.
Now, many of these seemingly untouchable tech companies are experiencing a downturn and laying off thousands of workers as people revert to pre-pandemic ways and macroeconomic conditions deteriorate.
Meta, Facebook’s parent, recently announced 11,000 job cuts, the biggest in the company’s history. Twitter also announced widespread job cuts after Elon Musk bought the company for $44 billion, funded in part by debt financing.
In a worrying sign of the times, a growing number of business leaders in the tech sector – from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey – have been apologizing in recent weeks when their employees lose their means of subsistence.
After hitting record highs during the pandemic, Amazon shares have dropped more than 40% in 2022 so far.
Source: CNN Brasil
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