Amazon starts a new round of layoffs, involving nearly 20,000 people

Amazon will continue to lay off 17,000 employees — a significantly higher number than previously planned — the latest sign of a deepening downturn in the tech industry, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal .

The layoffs, which began last year and were expected to affect about 10,000 people, are concentrated in the company's corporate division , according to The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter .

While the specter of layoffs has hung over Amazon for months — the company has acknowledged it hired too many employees during the pandemic — the increase in the total number of layoffs suggests the company's outlook has grown bleaker .

Still, Amazon's investors praised the company's belt -tightening , saying it should boost profits at the e-commerce company. Amazon's shares climbed nearly 2% in late trading after the report was released.

While 17,000 layoffs would be the largest layoffs in the tech world to date during the current economic slowdown, Amazon also has far more employees than many of its Silicon Valley peers. The company had more than 1.5 million employees at the end of September, meaning the latest round of layoffs would represent about 1% of its workforce .

In November, an Amazon spokesperson said the company had about 350,000 corporate employees worldwide ( excluding warehouse workers ) when it planned to cut jobs .

The world's largest online retailer has been adapting to slower e-commerce growth since last year as consumers gradually returned to pre-pandemic shopping habits .

In response to the slowdown in revenue, Amazon delayed the construction of new warehouses and suspended hiring in its retail division , gradually expanding the suspension of hiring to the entire company and finally starting a layoff plan .

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is reported to have cut some unprofitable businesses, including telemedicine services, delivery robots and children's video calling devices.

The Seattle-based company is also working to align its excess capacity with cooling demand, including trying to sell excess space on its cargo planes, according to people familiar with the matter .

The team most affected by the first wave of layoffs was Amazon's Devices and Services Group, which is responsible for products such as the Alexa smart assistant and the Echo smart speaker. The head of the group told Bloomberg last month that the total number of layoffs in its department is expected to be around 2,000 , and Amazon has not completely abandoned the voice assistant-related business .

As early as November last year, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees that there would be more layoffs in the retail and human resources departments in 2023 , so Amazon’s latest layoff notice did not surprise too many people.

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