Amazon deepens its tech-sector cuts by laying-off another 9,000 employees

Amazon says it would axe another
9,000 roles to make its operation lean and manage economic
uncertainty.

Monday’s announcement marks a new round of job cuts that pile onto the
technology sector’s woes.

In a remarkable turn for a company long touting its job
creation, Amazon will have eliminated 27,000 positions in recent
months or 9 percent of its roughly 300,000-person corporate workforce.

The latest slashing focuses on Amazon’s
highly-profitable cloud and advertising divisions, once seen as
untouchable until economic concerns led business customers to
scrutinise their spending.

Job reductions are coming to Amazon’s streaming unit
Twitch, as well, following cuts that began in November and focused
on the company’s devices, e-commerce and human resources organizations. Amazon aims to finalize whom it will terminate by
April.

Amazon’s stock fell by 2 percent.

The decision follows a near-endless drumbeat of layoff
news in the technology sector that has seen some of the world’s
most valuable corporations, among them Microsoft Corp
and Alphabet Inc, sever ties with staggering numbers
of employees they once courted in droves.

In what now seems a harbinger, Facebook’s parent Meta
Platforms Inc said last week it would cut 10,000 jobs
this year, kicking off a second round of layoffs for the sector
following its elimination of more than 11,000 roles in 2022.

“We are not surprised,” DA Davidson analyst Tom Forte
said in a note, pointing to recession concerns as a backdrop to
Amazon’s plans.

In a note to staff that Amazon posted online, its CEO Andy
Jassy said the decision stemmed from an ongoing analysis of
priorities and uncertainty about the economy.

“Some may ask why we didn’t announce these role
reductions with the ones we announced a couple of months ago,” he
wrote. “The short answer is that not all of the teams were done
with their analyses in the late fall.”

He added, “Given the uncertain economy in which we reside,
and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have
chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount.”

Amazon last month said operating profit may continue to
slump in the current quarter, hit by the financial impact of
consumers and cloud customers clamping down on spending.

The company has scaled back or shut down entire services
like its virtual primary care offering for employers in recent
months.

READ MORE: “Why are tech companies laying off staff in the thousands?”