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Amazon.com Inc. confirmed plans to lay off workers in its devices and services business Wednesday, becoming the latest large technology company to eliminate jobs amid a shaky economic climate.
Dave Limp, senior vice president for the e-commerce giant’s devices and services business, announced in a Wednesday post to its corporate site that Amazon
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would “consolidate some teams and programs,” meaning that “some roles will no longer be required.” He didn’t specify in the post how many roles would be affected.
“We notified impacted employees yesterday, and will continue to work closely with each individual to provide support, including assisting in finding new roles,” Limp said. “In cases where employees cannot find a new role within the company, we will support the transition with a package that includes a separation payment, transitional benefits, and external job placement support.”
The cuts follow a “deep set of reviews” into the company’s priorities, according to the post. The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon could ultimately cut 10,000 jobs. Amazon reported employing 1.54 million employees in its most recent quarterly earnings report last month.
See also: Venture capital investors see an ‘R’ word coming for tech — and it isn’t just recession
Amazon’s move to eliminate jobs is the latest sign that Big Tech isn’t immune to the economic storm threatening the broader economy. The company’s powerhouse cloud-computing business showed disappointing growth in the latest quarter, and Amazon executives delivered an underwhelming overall forecast for the holiday quarter alongside that report.
Amazon was valued as high as $1.88 trillion in July 2021, but its market capitalization has declined below $1 trillion.
The retail giant joins a host of other technology companies that have announced layoffs in recent months. The most notable example other than Amazon has been Meta Platforms Inc.
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the Facebook parent company that opted to lay off more than 11,000 employees, or about 13% of its workforce, earlier in November. Like Amazon, Meta has seen a precipitous decline in its valuation, which stood at roughly $300 billion recently, down from a peak of over $1 trillion last September.
Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged in a blog post detailing his layoff plans that he was too upbeat about the ways that e-commerce tailwinds would sustain after an initial pandemic-driven surge, and he noted that Meta ramped investments in way that doesn’t align with the current reality of e-commerce growth.
That was a refrain from other companies as well. Executives at Shopify Inc.
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and privately held Stripe pointed to overly optimistic projections for online commerce as they announced their own layoff intentions.
Other companies that have moved to trim their staffing include Peloton Interactive Inc.
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Robinhood Markets Inc.
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and Lyft Inc.
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Additionally, Twitter laid off about half of its staff after Tesla Inc.
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Chief Executive Elon Musk took over the social-media company.
