The online retail giant is on course to cut another 9000 jobs as it seeks to save costs. The firm, which employs 1.5 million people worldwide, said the cuts would fall mainly in cloud computing and advertising. The moves come as the company battles bloated operating expenses and softening consumer demand, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Amazon is the latest tech firm to join a growing list of companies cutting costs or scaling back hiring. Last week, Facebook’s parent Meta Platforms let go of more than 11,000 employees, while Apple and Google earlier scaled back their recruiting efforts.
Job cuts aren’t new to the tech sector, but this round of layoffs comes when companies in the industry face headwinds from rising interest rates and concerns about slowing economic growth. The company has also slowed expansion plans in brick-and-mortar stores, closing eight cashier-less, in-person Amazon Go convenience stores.
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CEO Andy Jassy told staff in a memo that the 9,000 positions were added to the 18,000 cuts announced in January. The majority of the reductions will impact Amazon Web Services (AWS), its advertising, Twitch gaming, and PXT (“People Experience and Technology Solutions”) divisions.
AWS is a cloud-services business that has been the most significant source of Amazon’s profit. It also accounts for a large portion of the retailer’s US warehouse footprint.
The 9,000 cuts are on top of the 18,000 roles Amazon announced in January, with Boss Andy Jassy saying it was a “difficult decision” but one that would be best for the company in the long term.
Amazon has reevaluated some business units in the past year, including its retail, devices, and human resources departments. As a result, it froze corporate hiring last November and began job cuts shortly after.
It is a sign that the company is rethinking its priorities and is not as optimistic about its future as it once was. However, it also shows that the company is trying to restructure and focus on core revenue-generating businesses.
In addition to its AWS unit, Amazon is also cutting jobs in its human resources, advertising, and Twitch live-streaming business, according to Jassy’s memo. He wrote that the company would communicate with impacted employees by mid-to-late April.
Among the job cuts, Jassy noted that Amazon has been trying to improve efficiency and productivity by eliminating unnecessary and unproductive teams. He said it would continue to do so throughout the year.
The cuts are part of a broader restructuring expected to result in more than $1 billion in cost savings. These include a cost-cutting initiative focusing on supporting workers rather than engineers. It’s a move that could save the company up to $1.5 billion annually in the long run.
