Amazon.com Inc. is laying off more than 18,000 employees — the biggest reduction in its history — in the latest sign that a tech-industry slump is deepening:
Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy announced the cuts, which represent about 1% of Amazon's employees, in a memo to staff Wednesday, saying it followed the company's annual planning process.
The eliminations began last year and were previously expected to affect about 10,000 people. The move is concentrated in the firm's corporate ranks, mostly Amazon's retail division and human resources functions, like recruiting.
[...] The first wave of cuts landed heaviest on Amazon's Devices and Services group, which builds the Alexa digital assistant and Echo smart speaker, among other products. The group's chief told Bloomberg last month that layoffs in the unit totaled less than 2,000 people, and that Amazon remained committed to the voice assistant.
Previously:
- Google Employees Brace for a Cost-Cutting Drive as Anxiety Mounts
- Amazon Will Reportedly Lay Off 10,000 Employees
Related Stories
It's a bad month for layoffs in tech
The big tech layoffs are continuing apace, and it seems nobody is safe. Following this month's massive staff cuts at Twitter and Meta, the New York Times reports that Amazon is now planning to let go of approximately 10,000 employees. Happy holidays, I guess.
Amazon's upcoming job cuts will reportedly impact its corporate employees, specifically its retail division, human resources, and the team working on the company's devices (which includes voice assistant Alexa).
Considering that Amazon employs over 1.5 million people across the globe, 10,000 workers laid off may not seem like a significant percentage from the company's perspective. It amounts to about 0.7 percent of Amazon's employees, which is a considerably smaller relative reduction than Twitter's Elon Musk-induced layoffs that cut its workforce by around 50 percent.
A reduction in force, or perhaps they're making room for picking up some of the high performing Twitter talent who were let go? [hubie]
Google workers in Switzerland sent a letter this month to the company's vice president of human resources, outlining their worries that a new employee evaluation system could be used to cull the work force:
"The number and spread of reports that reached us indicates that at least some managers were aggressively pressured to apply a quota" on a process that could lead to employees getting negative ratings and potentially losing their jobs, five workers and employee representatives wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The New York Times.
The letter signaled how some Google employees are increasingly interpreting recent management decisions as warnings that the company may be angling to conduct broader layoffs. From the impending closure of a small office and the cancellation of a content-moderation project to various efforts to ease budgets during 2023 planning meetings, the Silicon Valley behemoth has become a tinderbox of anxiety, according to interviews with 14 current and former employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
[...] The worries have grown as Google's tech industry peers have handed out pink slips amid a souring global economy. Last month, Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, purged its ranks by 11,000, or about 13 percent of its work force. Amazon also began laying off about 10,000 people in corporate and technology jobs, or about 3 percent of its corporate employees.
Even Google, which is on track to make tens of billions of dollars in profits this year, has had to come to terms with a slowdown. In October, as the digital advertising market slumped, Google's parent company, Alphabet, reported that profit dropped 27 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, to $13.9 billion.
Related: Amazon Will Reportedly Lay Off 10,000 Employees
In the latest lay off round hit to tech, Yahoo has announced they will be releasing around 1,600 workers, including half their Business unit, with 1,000 of the cuts coming by the end of the week:
The layoffs are part of a broader effort by the company to streamline operations in Yahoo's advertising unit. The Yahoo for Business segment's strategy had "struggled to live up to our high standards across the entire stack," according to a Yahoo spokesperson.
"Given the new focus of the new Yahoo Advertising group, we will reduce the workforce of the former Yahoo for Business division by nearly 50% by the end of 2023," a Yahoo spokesperson told CNBC.
Yahoo said the company would shift efforts to its 30-year partnership with Taboola, a digital advertising company, to satisfy ad services.
Those losing their jobs will be provided severance packages.
Related:
- Open Source Teams at Google Hit Hard by Layoffs: Was It the Algorithm?
- Amazon to Slash More Than 18,000 Jobs in Escalation of Cuts
- Google Employees Brace for a Cost-Cutting Drive as Anxiety Mounts
On April 1, Amazon will be permanently closing some of its Amazon Go stores in major cities on both coasts:
The locations include two stores in Seattle, two stores in New York City and four in San Francisco.
"Like any physical retailer, we periodically assess our portfolio of stores and make optimization decisions along the way. In this case, we've decided to close a small number of Amazon Go stores in Seattle, New York City and San Francisco," an Amazon spokesperson told FOX Business in a Saturday email.
[...] The e-commerce giant is still opening new Amazon Go stores.
"We remain committed to the Amazon Go format, operate more than 20 Amazon Go stores across the U.S., and will continue to learn which locations and features resonate most with customers as we keep evolving our Amazon Go stores," the spokesperson said.
Originally spotted on The Eponymous Pickle.
Related: Amazon to Slash More Than 18,000 Jobs in Escalation of Cuts
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Ox0000 on Friday January 06 2023, @06:49PM (12 children)
"We make a lot of profit, like A LOT, but it's still not enough. Even though we don't have to do this to you, we choose to do so!"
Insatiable Predatory Capitalism
(Score: 4, Touché) by mcgrew on Friday January 06 2023, @08:58PM (3 children)
This was modded "troll" when I first saw it. Elon's on S/N now? Or maybe Jeff? Or Bill? Or... what's the Bitchcoin Krypto King Klutz ankle bracelet guy's name?
Or maybe Ethanol Fueled has mod points now? Funny. Or at least odd.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 06 2023, @09:53PM (1 child)
Maybe some of us are just tired of whiny socialist morons who think that companies are supposed to ignore their own best interest.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Friday January 06 2023, @09:59PM
Some people were tired of whiny slaves who think that slave owners are supposed to ignore their own best interests.
Or vassals and feudal lords.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 4, Funny) by TheGratefulNet on Saturday January 07 2023, @12:07AM
come to think of it, I'm not sure anyone has seen EF and elon in the same room, at the same time.
makes ya think!
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 0, Troll) by crafoo on Friday January 06 2023, @09:10PM (5 children)
I can't imagine being this wrong about everything and not even knowing it. Or do you, and you are intentionally misrepresenting the situation to further an agenda?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 06 2023, @09:33PM (4 children)
Are you suggesting Amazon is not making a profit? Last I checked, their 22Q3 brought in 2.9 billion USD in profit, pretty solid net-positive for a single quarter.
Is there a point where their hunger for more, more, more can be sated or are you going to defend pillaging ad infinitum?
Gordon Gekko of "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good", was a villain, remember that... Greed is destructive.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 06 2023, @09:57PM (3 children)
It doesn't matter in the slightest how much profit they are making. They are under no obligation to subsidize anyone.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 07 2023, @01:40PM (2 children)
It does matter how much profit they are making. At some point, it's no longer "profit" and it becomes "malicious exploitation".
I am in no way suggesting that they 'subsidize' anyone. I am arguing that if they want to be seen as a positive actor in society, they have a responsibility to fulfill; one they all too make a lot of noise about by "being job creators" and all that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 07 2023, @03:08PM (1 child)
If you think they are "exploiting" people, why don't you start a company to compete with them, that does "better" (by whatever criteria you deem "better"). That's how you fix things in a free market economy. But you'd rather just whine and bitch and wish for big brother to beat up anyone who disagrees with you.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Saturday January 07 2023, @06:21PM
Big Brother, now often known as Alexa. Their devices have a lot in common with the telescreens...
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by jonathan on Friday January 06 2023, @09:47PM (1 child)
Except that Amazon has rarely made any profits. Jeff Bezo kept sending the same letter to Shareholders for years that it would reinvest in order to grow the company which the Shareholders accepted for more than a decade, maybe more than two at this point which is why they became so big. But when you cannot grow the company anymore because of a recession so they can't justify investing in new business segments to explain why there are no profits, what do you have left as an option except to cut jobs?
(Score: 2) by Ox0000 on Saturday January 07 2023, @01:45PM
You mean the 2.9 billion they raked in in 22Q3 under the line "net income [aboutamazon.com]" is not profit? There's also a handy table below on the same linked page that has some historical information about "not making a profit" as well.
That's 26 billion of not making a profit in 2021 and 11.3 billion of not making a profit in the first 9 months of 2022.
It feels like you're stuck in the same ol' days when google were doing their "Don't be evil" thing. That changed eons ago, friend.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Opportunist on Friday January 06 2023, @07:29PM
Those pesky proles! They don't accept our graciously offered jobs anymore, they actually want to be paid enough money to live on! Hell, there are even companies that can't find workers anymore because their work conditions are so crappy that nobody would work there if you can't force them to.
This has to stop! Fire them! Fire them all, until they finally come crawling back for a job, as they should! Yes, I know, we need workers, but we sure as fuck don't need workers that think they can be uppity because they could get another, or even a better, job!
(Score: 5, Funny) by DannyB on Friday January 06 2023, @08:19PM (8 children)
The current economic conditions are no doubt affecting struggling billionaires just like everyone else.
They have to cut somewhere.
They certainly cannot cut any necessities such as their yachts or space joyrides for rich people.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 06 2023, @08:40PM (6 children)
3 great posts, each getting a "troll" mod. Anybody see what's wrong with the moderation system yet?
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday January 06 2023, @09:03PM (1 child)
Yes, I see you logged in modding every comment "troll", then logging out and trolling about it, you fucking troll. Knock it off, asshole.
Oh, yeah, you're not the only one with mod points, Einstein. You were overridden in minutes. Sheesh, where do all the morons come from?
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 06 2023, @09:30PM
Amazingly assholic response, captain troll. In fact, I have given NO downmods at all, and in fact used up all my mod points trying to upmod the "troll" mods.
WTF is with people like you- huge ego for sure. Sadly you'll never admit you're wrong and apologize.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Opportunist on Friday January 06 2023, @09:15PM (3 children)
Someone playing the Slashdot game on Soylentnews. Just sit it out, ADHD-kids get bored quickly anyway, no reason to get worked up over it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 06 2023, @09:33PM (2 children)
Yeah, thanks. Not only is the mod system broken (idiot individuals have too much power), but from what I'm seeing I wonder if the server has been "hacked" and someone is doing this. There are far too many "troll" mods to be just a few random SN users. In fact, until the last couple of hours, SN has been a pretty great place to visit and interact / contribute to for several weeks.
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Saturday January 07 2023, @09:13AM (1 child)
There is no obvious moderation abuse currently taking place. Nobody is mod-bombing.
There are several users who are rather more keen to moderate down rather than up - but if that is their view of the world then there is not much one can do about it. The community tends to counter such moderations over a period of hours.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday January 07 2023, @09:16AM
(Score: 5, Funny) by Opportunist on Friday January 06 2023, @09:12PM
Have they tried the wrists?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by TheGratefulNet on Saturday January 07 2023, @12:12AM (2 children)
lately, drivers have been REALLY bad with amazon. are you guys seeing it, too?
about 1/3 of the deliveries are going missing. when amazon delivers, they often take a photo and its useful to know where they left the pkg. when there's no photo, often they faked the delivery. fortunately, you just call (and waste lots of time, 20 mins is typical) and they credit you, but its SUCH a time waste! not to mention, you miss your deadline if the item you need is not on time.
UPS, fedex, usps, they are all generally ok and their business is all about delivery.
with amazon, they dont take it seriously.
I have to assume they build this into their model. x amount will 'go missing' and it will cost x amount on the phone to credit the customer, but they STILL end up ahead. they must have done the math but its annoying to have a high % of the deliveries go missing.
amazon should either do it right or just give up on the last mile. the half/half they have now is worse than nothing.
final insult: you cant pick which service is the last mile delivery. if they let us pick, that would fix it. but again, they build it into their model. no way to de-select a carrier.
glad I dont WORK for amazon. that would truly be aweful, I'd imagine, no matter what level you are at.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 2) by Username on Saturday January 07 2023, @04:04AM
I think it's just your area. The amazon drivers here are the best option. They have a warehouse just down the road, I get same day for free without prime usually. Never lost a package with them.
That would be great. I hate when it comes USPS. They don't deliver where I live, you have to go the post office to pick up mail.
(Score: 2) by Username on Saturday January 07 2023, @04:08AM
Hum. Maybe you got thieves who know amazon will just comp your purchase so they don't think it's bad.