Amazon Launches Largest Layoff Round in Company History
Amazon begins cutting over 18,000 jobs, marking the largest workforce reduction in its 28-year history. The tech giant makes this move to combat slowing sales growth and rising expenses.
Amazon initiates a massive round of layoffs affecting over 18,000 employees, making this the largest workforce reduction in the company's 28-year history. CEO Andy Jassy states that the job cuts primarily impact the human resources and stores divisions, building on previous reductions in devices and recruiting teams.
The company reduces its head count after going on a major hiring spree during the Covid-19 pandemic. Amazon's global workforce balloons to more than 1.6 million by the end of 2021, nearly doubling from 798,000 in late 2019, leading to the current need for downsizing.
Amazon faces slowing sales growth, rising expenses, and a worsening economic outlook that prompt these significant changes. Alongside the layoffs, the company implements a corporate hiring freeze, slows warehouse expansion, and shuts down experimental projects like its telehealth service, joining other tech giants like Meta and Salesforce in making sweeping workforce cuts.