Amazon plans to lay off as many as 20,000 employees in the coming months, including distribution center workers, technology staff and corporate executives as the retail and cloud computing giant retrenches after going on a hiring spree during the pandemic, according to a report by Computerworld.
Amazon employees are ranked from level 1 to level 7, and staff at all levels will likely be affected, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke with Computerworld requesting anonymity.
NYT first reported in mid-November that Amazon would enact mass layoffs, and as many as 10,000 people would be sacked.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
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Company managers over the last few days, however, have been told that they should try to identify work performance problems among employees, as part of an effort to lay off about 20,000 people, according to the report.
Twenty thousand employees are the equivalent of about 6 percent of corporate staff, and about 1.3 percent of Amazon's total 1.5 million-strong workforce including global distribution center and hourly workers.
Corporate staff have been told that employees will receive a 24-hour notice and severance pay, in accordance with their company contracts, the report added. “There is a sense of fear among employees in the company as the news has come out,” one of the sources told Computerworld, who was informed directly about the layoff effort.
The layoffs would be the largest staff reduction in the company's history.
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“There is no specific department or location mentioned for the cuts; it is across the business. We were told this is as a result of over-hiring during the pandemic and the need for cost-cutting as the company's financials have been on a declining trend,” said the source.
In the wake of the NYT story, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on November 17, in a public message to employees, confirmed that layoffs were occurring, though he did not specify the planned number of employees to be laid off.
"Our annual planning process extends into the new year, which means there will be more role reductions as leaders continue to make adjustments. Those decisions will be shared with impacted employees and organizations early in 2023," Jassy wrote in the message, noting that the company had already communicated that layoffs would occur in the Devices and Books businesses, and would be extending a voluntary reduction offer for some employees in the People, Experience, and Technology (PXT) organization. Meanwhile, according to the report, sources have confirmed that employees on the company's robotics team have been laid off.
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Reportedly, Amazon spokesperson did not ascertain the number of employees being sacked, but reiterated the CEO's November 17 message saying that, "We haven’t concluded yet exactly how many other roles will be impacted (we know that there will be reductions in our Stores and PXT organizations), but each leader will communicate to their respective teams when we have the details nailed down.”
