Amazon announced earlier this year that it would eliminate some 18,000 positions, which has now begun. And not to anyone’s surprise, the company revealed that it had eliminated 10,000 jobs last week. Today, the company announced an additional 9,000 layoffs, becoming the most extensive layoffs in its history. The job cuts are part of a significant cost-cutting bid by the tech giant.
The move affects employees across the Twitch platform and Amazon Hardware division. The company analyzed how these cuts would impact their retail teams and service workers. According to Jassy, these layoffs were necessary to continue providing the best service to their customers and ensure their resources are used efficiently.
Following the major job reduction, The Seattle-based tech giant said it was part of their annual planning process and that the job cuts since November were necessary to “right-size” the company. CEO Andy Jassy said in a memo Monday that the company had completed its second phase of job cuts. Andy Jassy also wrote in a blog post that Amazon’s burgeoning advertising business, including Amazon Advertising and AWS Advertising Web Services, had hit some of the company’s most profitable areas. That move was part of their efforts to restructure their technology solutions.
The layoffs affect 1.5 million workers from all departments, including logistics, marketing, product development, and customer service. Amazon is reportedly planning to lay off 9,000 employees. This decision gained criticism due to its impact on the company’s Black and Latino minority employees; the Seattle Times reports that 31% of Amazon’s Lowest paid Black workers and 24% are Latino, primarily working in the warehouse and call centers.