The American e-commerce giant Amazon plans to lay off more than 18,000 workers, confirmed the company’s CEO Andy Jassy on Wednesday.
After news of the layoffs leaked to the public, Jassy confirmed the speculation in a statement on Amazon’s website, stating that discussions with affected employees will begin on January 18, during which they will also receive assistance in the form of severance pay, as well as support in finding other jobs.
The layoffs will primarily affect the online retail departments (Amazon Stores) and human resources management, he said.
The Seattle-based company began laying off workers in its devices division in November, and a source told Reuters at the time that the target was to lay off 10,000 workers.
Amazon employs more than 1.5 million workers globally, making it the second-largest private employer in the U.S., and is preparing for a likely slowdown in business growth as rising inflation forces companies and consumers to cut back on spending.
According to the announcement, Amazon will eliminate more jobs than other major companies, representing a swift turnaround for a retailer that had doubled the upper limit of its base salary in recent months to better compete for talent, Reuters reports.
In anticipation of an expected recession and due to weaker business results, layoffs have already been announced by others, including Meta, the owner of Facebook, which stated it would lay off more than 11,000 workers, Microsoft announced it would lay off about a thousand, and mass layoffs have already begun at the social platform Twitter.
