Amazon CEO says job cuts will extend into next year

Chief Executive Andy Jassy said the mass layoffs at Amazon that began this week will extend into next year.

In a note to staff, Mr Jassy said the company had notified staff in its equipment and books divisions of the layoffs on Wednesday. It also made voluntary buyout offers to some other employees, he said.

“I’ve been in this position for about a year and a half, and it’s without a doubt the hardest decision we’ve made in that time (and, we’ve had to make some really tough decisions over the last few years, especially at the big Epidemic core period),” Mr. Jassy wrote in the memo.

Seattle-based Amazon has been cutting costs in various areas of its business over the past few months and is conducting an annual review to determine where it can save more money.

Mr Jassy said this year’s review was “more difficult” because of the economic situation and the rapid pace of hiring the company had over the past few years.

Other tech companies — many of which have been on a hiring spree over the past few years — have also been laying off workers amid concerns over an economic slowdown.

Among them, Facebook parent company Meta said last week that it would lay off 11,000 people, accounting for about 13% of its total workforce. Twitter’s new chief executive, Elon Musk, cut the company’s workforce in half this month.

On Tuesday, Amazon notified California authorities that it would lay off about 260 company employees at facilities in the state.

The company has not publicly disclosed how many employees it laid off across the company’s workforce this week, though some employees in Seattle said they too had been laid off.

Mr Jassy said the company had not yet reached a conclusion on how many other jobs would be affected. He noted that there will be layoffs in certain departments as the company goes through the annual review process, which will continue into next year.

He said that in weighing the layoffs, company leadership will prioritize what is most important to the long-term health of customers and the company.

Amazon offers severance packages to employees who leave the company. But — unlike Meta, for example — it doesn’t publicly provide package details.

The company employs more than 1.5 million people worldwide, primarily composed of hourly workers.