Amazon to Staff: Layoffs Will Extend Into New Year

Mass layoffs started at Amazon last week, and they apparently aren’t going to end any time soon.

Company CEO Andy Jassy said in a note to employees that the layoffs would extend into next year.

The Associated Press reported that Jassy told workers in Amazon’s devices and books division about the layoffs, and offered some other employees a voluntary buyout.

“I’ve been in this role now for about a year and a half, and without a doubt, this is the most difficult decision we’ve made during that time (and, we’ve had to make some very tough calls over the past couple of years, particularly during the heart of the pandemic),” Jassy wrote in the memo, according to the AP.

Seattle-based Amazon has been cutting costs in various areas for the past few months and is undergoing an annual review process to figure out where it can save more money. Jassy said this year’s review is “more difficult” due to the economic landscape and the company’s rapid hiring in the last several years.

Other tech companies have also been paring their workforces, most notably Facebook parent Meta, which said last week it would lay off 11,000 people, about 13% of its workforce. And Elon Musk, the new Twitter CEO, has slashed the company’s workforce in half this month.

On Tuesday, Amazon notified authorities in California that it would lay off about 260 corporate workers at various facilities in the state, the AP reported.

Amazon has more than 1.5 million employees – primarily hourly workers —  around the world.