Amazon plans to cut 18,000 employees from its workforce in early 2023. The world’s fifth largest company revealed on Wednesday that “just over 18,000” staff would leave as it aims to reduce costs.
Staff cuts will fall within the corporate business—rather than warehouses or physical stores. Most will occur in Amazon’s human resources division—referred to internally as People, Experience and Technology (PXT)—and the Amazon Stores unit housing its ecommerce business.
Sales via Amazon’s online store fell in 2022 amid a cost-of-living crisis and post-pandemic drop in ecommerce, while supply chain issues contributed to rising costs.
Plans to cut staff were revealed in a blog post written by Andy Jassy, the Harvard MBA who took over as chief executive from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in early 2021. Jassy highlighted this was a response to the uncertain economy and the company’s rapid hiring in recent years.
“These changes will help us pursue our long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure,” he wrote.
He added that the changes would benefit Amazon’s business and customers as the firm finds “a way to do more for customers at a lower cost.”
Amazon is one of a number of tech firms to announce headcount changes in recent months. Fellow Big Tech firms Meta and Google have also revealed plans to reduce costs.
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