Amazon layoff plans have grown to nearly twice their original scope, with the company now planning on laying off 18,000 workers.
Reports surfaced in November that Amazon was planning to lay off as many as 10,000 employees. Like many in the tech industry, the company was looking for ways to weather the economic downturn.
Fast-forward two months, and CEO Andy Jassy has written a blog post notifying employees of the company’s intention to lay off 18,000 workers, not 10,000. Jassy says recent reviews revealed the need to lay off more individuals than was previously planned.
“Today, I wanted to share the outcome of these further reviews, which is the difficult decision to eliminate additional roles,” Jassy writes. “Between the reductions we made in November and the ones we’re sharing today, we plan to eliminate just over 18,000 roles. Several teams are impacted; however, the majority of role eliminations are in our Amazon Stores and PXT organizations.”
Jassy says he initially planned to publicly reveal the increased scope of the layoffs only after the individuals impacted were notified. However, news of the layoffs was leaked, with The Wall Street Journal breaking the story, causing Jassy to publicly acknowledge the plans.
“We typically wait to communicate about these outcomes until we can speak with the people who are directly impacted,” “However, because one of our teammates leaked this information externally, we decided it was better to share this news earlier so you can hear the details directly from me. We intend on communicating with impacted employees (or where applicable in Europe, with employee representative bodies) starting on January 18.”
Amazon’s layoffs are sure to raise concerns over the state of the economy, as the company is engaging in mass layoffs during what is normally its businesses season.